The Salt Print Thread

[MDR]

Maybe bronzing from an excess of silver. Ellie young's book 'the salt printing manual' is well worth having, I would look it up for you but appear to have lost mine so am going on memory.

Her master thesis on which the book is based is available online for free and also well worth the read. http://researchbank.rmit.edu.au/eser...7850/Young.pdf

[Ramiro Elena]

Her master thesis on which the book is based is available online for free and also well worth the read. http://researchbank.rmit.edu.au/eser...7850/Young.pdf

Cool! Thanks
I am thinking it could very well be due to poor coating. It was the step that gave me more doubts.

Salt solution
20 gr. of salt
20 gr. gelatin
1000ml water

The albumen print I did came out fine in terms of coating. The color is not as pleasant though. It is quite difficult to coat with albumen. All the paper I did looks very uneven.
I did try to tone a couple prints (Gold/Borax) and I was surprised to see very little color change. The highlights acquired a faint yellow tint.

[mdm]

Sodium citrate in the salt solution made a world of difference to my prints, faster exposures and contrastier so more normal negatives work better. I seem to remember toning for some time in the gold borax toner. Make shure your prints are well washed before toneing. I used to use Ellie's workflow and fix and then tone all my keeper prints at once rather than later. Sometimes the chocolate print straight out of the frame is beautiful too, and they can be kept for a time in a book before they go and scanned too for a permanent solution. Both my prints on the first page were gold borax toned.

[Ramiro Elena]

Not easy to find where I live apparently. I am too toning after fixing but I wonder if untoned images really fade that badly. I love the untoned original salt print color.

[Kimberly Anderson]

Yesterday I spent seven hours 'washing' salt I had collected from Utah's Spiral Jetty. After it was cleaned of all the brine eggs, shrimp larvae, sand, dust, twigs and other random stuff that was in it, I took that solution and boiled it down to a thick paste. I then poured that paste into a frying pan and heated it slowly until it was dry. I took 40 grams of it and added it to 2000ml of distilled water and now I have my 2% saline solution. I also mixed up some new 12% Silver Nitrate as well. I plan to add the citric acid to the saline solution and will be printing on Arches Platine.

Here are some boring pics of how to boil down salt.

[Rob Hale]

Calling mdm.

Hi David,
I keep looking salt printing but finding the ingredients on shore in NZ is an uphill battle.
Are you sourcing your ingredients here in NZ or bringing them from over seas ?
If you have sources on shore would you be kind and list them for me ?
Regards

Rob

[mdm]

If all else fails then Ellie at goldstreetstudios.com.au can help, she is a Kiwi. She can supply COT 320 paper, ingredients, book. I got my silver nitrate and gold chloride from artcraft in the US. Hypo, Sodium Sulfite (jasol) and Sodium Citrate (ingredientstop) are available locally, all used in food processing. There is a guy selling photochemicals on trademe. I am afraid I am a lapsed salt printer at the moment, but will be back into it soon.

[Rob Hale]

Hi David,

Thanks for the information; I will chase salt printing up after the break. I have an inkling that the silver nitrate is on a “no ship” list but I think that it is used by surgeons as a “ stopper “ of some sort so even if pricy it is in the country.
In the mean time I will chase up goldstreetsudios.

Regards

Rob

[Ramiro Elena]

David, does sodium citrate go by another name? What sort of stores do you think may have it?

[pau3]

Ramiro, in Barcelona you can find "citrato sódico" at Químics Dalmau, Villarroel street.