margins for alt process prints?

[Jim Noel]

What do you hae under the paper you are attempting to coat? That can make a big difference in their efficiency.

[Vaughn]

If the paper's sizing resists the solution, rod-coating can be more difficult. Part of my routine is to whiggle the rod a little after squirting the solution along its length...so my first pass has solution all along its length. A touch of tween20 can make it much easier in those situations where the first pass has spotty coverage.

Some papers such as Arches can benefit from a first few passes with distilled water to prep the paper.

I have done about four passes with the rod (defines the area nicely), then finish with a damp (not wet) brush -- that works, too. But with Tween20, I have found the brushing is not needed.

When working with platinum and palladium, one can easily refine the number of drops needed to cover with a rod (no unknown amount in the brush) without having a line of solution at the edge to clean up. This amount will change with paper, humidity and the phase of the moon.

[Greg]

I tried a glass rod for the first time a couple days ago. The results were not good. I don't know if it was either because I need much more practice or need to use much more emulsion.

My experiences is to have students practice coating paper using strong (room temperature) black coffee with both a rod and a brush. Most prefer one over the other, with the rod by far more preferred. First 6 times coating a penciled in rectangle on the paper, then switching to eight 1/2" marks outside of the area to be coated. 9 out of 10 students rush coating the paper rather than using slow controlled movements. Personally I like the visual edge effect of a brush over a rod, but use a rod because I seem to have more control and am able to move more slowly. I will demonstrate how to coat paper only once with a rod and once with a brush. From then on the students have to develop their own technique rather than try to duplicate mine. Biggest hurdle is that a lot of students try to hold down the paper with one hand instead of taping down the four corners.

[martiansea]

What do you hae under the paper you are attempting to coat? That can make a big difference in their efficiency.

I had the paper taped directly to glass. I avoid anything under the paper that might have a texture, as I found this causes unevenness with brush coating.

[martiansea]

I was finding that I could only do one pass. And if that one pass didn't cover evenly across, it was failed. Every time I tried to turn it around and do a second pass, the second pass would be extremely uneven and even start to get sticky and not go smoothly and completely messed up anything good from the first pass. This was with cyanotype with a couple different kinds of paper. I've never had an experience like this with a brush.

[martiansea]

If the paper's sizing resists the solution, rod-coating can be more difficult. Part of my routine is to whiggle the rod a little after squirting the solution along its length...so my first pass has solution all along its length. A touch of tween20 can make it much easier in those situations where the first pass has spotty coverage.

Some papers such as Arches can benefit from a first few passes with distilled water to prep the paper.

I have done about four passes with the rod (defines the area nicely), then finish with a damp (not wet) brush -- that works, too. But with Tween20, I have found the brushing is not needed.

When working with platinum and palladium, one can easily refine the number of drops needed to cover with a rod (no unknown amount in the brush) without having a line of solution at the edge to clean up. This amount will change with paper, humidity and the phase of the moon.

I will try dampening the paper and using some Tween 20. Thanks. I hope I can get this figured out. I thought glass rod would be the way to go for very even results, and I'm surprised by how counterintuitive it has been.