Albumin Printing?

[tgtaylor]

Anyone making albumin prints?

I mixed up my first 5000mL of albumin and should be ready to start printing in about a week.

Thomas

[sanking]

That should be albumen (egg white), not albumin (blood serum).

Sandy

[BrianShaw]

No matter whether blood or egg, I can't wait to hear about and see your results. I think about it often but haven't had the time to experiment.

[ghostcount]

Albumen + Canson Universal Sketch Pad = "same feel as the original papers of the 19th century and once mounted with wheat starch paste, burnishes beautifully" - Osterman

My attempts with a glass negative.






Negative density range: 2.14 – 0.64 = 1.50
Albumen: 1.5% sodium chloride with vinegar
Paper: 9×11 Canson Universal Sketch (aka. Crob ‘Art) single coated (float method)
Sensitization: 12% silver nitrate, rod method
Exposure: 5 minutes in the afternoon sun

[Doug Howk]

B&S' kit makes Albumen printing alot easier. They are manufacturing the Albumen coated paper (Stonehenge?). All that's needed is the coating with silver, then treated as other POP processes. My only problem is the coating step. I prefer brush, but anything larger than 5X7 has had streaks. They do recommend the use of a roller rather than a brush (or float sensitizing)

[tgtaylor]

Yep, used the wrong spelling: In English it should be albumen as Sandy pointed out but for some reason I used the French spelling of albumin. Anyway it took me 3 dozen large grade AA eggs to obtain 500mL of albumin. This was my first attempt so it took a few eggs before I became proficient and to sort out thee difference between the thick mucus-type of albumen from the chalazae. I ended up tossing a few of the former with the latter before I figured it out. Using an electric hand blender I whipped the albumen with acetic acid and ammonium chloride to a thick froth at which point I belatedly realized that I forgot to add 15mL of distilled water to the mixture before blending. So I added the 15mL of distilled water and blended it again. Here is what it looks like about 10 hours later:



I'll leave it sit out overnight and filter it through cheese cloth before work tomorrow morning and transfer it to the fridge for a week or so before coating paper. Initially I'll probably print on Lanaquerelle and Fabriano Aristrico - both of which I have used successfully with salt prints and have on hand. I'm planning to coat the albumin on the paper by floating and then sensitize by brush which I am fairly good at and using a push paddle which I have but have never used - to see what works best with this process.

Thomas

[ghostcount]

Nicely done!

Don't discard the yolk.

Dogs love them too.

Also, a little trick on the yolks.

[sanking]

I'll leave it sit out overnight and filter it through cheese cloth before work tomorrow morning and transfer it to the fridge for a week or so before coating paper. Initially I'll probably print on Lanaquerelle and Fabriano Aristrico - both of which I have used successfully with salt prints and have on hand. I'm planning to coat the albumin on the paper by floating and then sensitize by brush which I am fairly good at and using a push paddle which I have but have never used - to see what works best with this process.

Thomas

If you heat the albumen solution in a bain-marie to about 100º F it will go through the filter a lot faster. At room temperature it takes a very long time. When you pour the solution in a try to float coat there will be a lot of bubbles on the surface. You can get rid of most of them by floating first a sacrificial sheet of paper to pick up the bubbles.

Mixing albumen from eggs is fun, but powdered eggs also work very well, and allow you to make a more concentrated solution. A good source for the powdered eggs is http://shop.honeyville.com/catalogse...der+egg+whites.

Sandy

[Cor]

Ages ago I did some Albumen printing; I recall:

Best results with double coating the paper with albumen (hardening with iso-propanol in between)

Never got really clear highlights, a problem inherent with Albumen printing I believe.

There is an exhaustive text:
'The Albumen and Salted Paper Book'(1980) by James O'Reilly I believe there is a free on line version somewhere.

Toning is mandatory if you want to keep your prints a long time

But you probably knew that anyway.

Good luck, the few prints I made were quite beautiful as print

best,

Cor

[ghostcount]

...
There is an exhaustive text:
'The Albumen and Salted Paper Book'(1980) by James O'Reilly I believe there is a free on line version somewhere.
...

Good book on the subject.