Spotone Substitutes

[neil poulsen]

Are people experiementing with Spotone substitutes? Opened bottles are going for about $10 on ebay. I could have picked up tons of the stuff for $1 a bottle and helped prepare for retirement.

How about the Marshal spotting options? Are they any good? It doesn't seem like it would be rocket science to put together a spotting solution. Of course, there's the whole arcival thing and how well the spotting holds up over time.

[Brandon Draper]

Wow. Why don't they make it anymore? You know I think I threw some of that away last month when I was cleaning. Bummer.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I still have a supply, but when I'm done, I'm planning on trying Weston's method, which was a mixture of India ink and gum arabic, and he would vary the concentration of gum to match the gloss of the paper. It appears in Adams' _The Print_, and is quoted in a similar thread over on APUG--

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum46/2...tml#post314053

[N Dhananjay]

I don't know exactly what kind of dye Spotone used.

There are a variety of things you can use very well. Try sumi ink, which you typically grind yourself (you will need a stick and a grinding stone), or watercolors mixed with a small amount of gum arabic. All easily available in any decent art store.

Cheers, DJ

[Gene McCluney]

I believe Marshalls offers some Spotone type retouching products. Freestyle shows some choices. Spotone was never the only choice for liquid dye retouching. Spotone is not more or less archival than other products that work the same way.

[Kevin Crisp]

I've been very happy with Marshall's "basic black." The "spot pens" are also very handy if they are still available. Last I heard they were.

[Eric Woodbury]

I hear that Spotone dyes fade in time. Bummer.

Looks like Freestyle carries Marshall and Peerless.

[Dan Schmidt]

peerless dry spotting sheets:

midway down this page:

http://www.peerlesscolor.com/products.htm

I find the sheet is easier to work with than a bottle.

[cobalt]

black water color. Diluted India ink. works well on fb paper.

[Gene McCluney]

So, any of these products that are dye based (and this is most of them) will not be as archival as the properly developed fixed and washed b/w fibre print, but in general, the tiny specks normally "spotted out" with dyes are so small that fading is inconsequential. I have prints I made almost 30 years ago, and spotted with Marshalls and Spotone, and these prints are framed and on display and they show no fading of the retouching.