A blended ferrocyanide print process

[Andrew O'Neill]

Are you sensitising the gelatin with Cyanotype chemistry, processing it as a ferroblend, then transferring it?

 

[BrendanOrner]

That's very cool! Please share pics of your print.

Are you making a tissue on Yupo the way it's done in Carbon transfer? And then sensitising, drying, exposing and developing as one would do in FerroBlend?

yep, I'll post some when I get something that is less experimental. (the first transfer attempt floated a little and I suddenly understood potential origins of cubism). Yes it was mostly following some of carbon transfer stuff Andy has posted. Tissue was on Yupo, sentized with a modified version of your sensitising agent (closer to traditional cyanotype...I'm Singapore working in a not-so-light-tight kitchen so fogging and humidity can be an issue). I usually apply the sensitizer in water via glass rod. Usually with ferroblend I think my exposures and development times are shorter than yours typically are although with the transfer I increased them because of diffusion and to ensure better polymerisation but yeah pretty much the same procedure. I did get a bit of yellow/brown staining and the blues became almost black.

 

[Jan de Jong]

Just my addition, trying to keep it simple for me, so made some "negatives" on normal office copy paper in the inkjet printer. Took a picture of a fish in the pet-shop, made it black and white and added some Emboss effect on the phone before printing it in draft mode on the paper. Then made it partially transparent with canola oil on the back side of the print. Exposure for this one was 15 minutes under the UV light. Just development with Raghu's developer. Cyanotype formula no additives just a bit more K-Ferri. I am using here very cheap water color paper. This depends from batch to batch but lately what they sell seems to work well again, no per-treatment this time. In this way paper negatives work well. You just need to ensure it is firmly against the coated paper, ie really against it.

Cheers Jan.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Nice one, Jan!

 

[NedL]

I like that one Jan. Sometimes a paper negative on plain old office paper can work really well!

 

[BrendanOrner]

I really like the texture on the scales and the fins and the tonality in the composition gives it depth

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

Very nice!

 

[Jan de Jong]

Thank you all! I like that it works because it makes it so much easier to take a picture for making a print from for example my phone. I guess it will not be as detailed as printing on acetate, but still. I will try some other images in the next days.

 

[Jan de Jong]

Now that I can use normal paper as negative I looked for some interesting thing in the city today lunch time. The Luxembourg libary has an interesting wall, so I took an image and reversed it, again added some embossing, just to be sure to get some details. Paper made transparent with the Canola oil. Exposure 35 minutes.

my mix for the emulsion:
2 gr FAC 1.5 gr K-Ferri + 12 ml dest water.
I let the coated paper dry relative short 30 minutes then exposed 35 minutes.

development with the "FerroBlend" mix
2 gr Copper Sulfate, 10gr Sodium Citrate in 100ml.

for development brushed direct after development on the dry paper, repeated after a minute to ensure not dry spots. Left it for about 5 minutes rest. nice black formed
Rinsing with Citric acid in normal tap water. It all cleared nicely. Below the making of and the final result.
Looks all good, print almost perfect, except a few uneven coated spots on the sides and lacking some pressure at some points so a bit fuzzy.
I tried my best to get the color accurate in the picture, the contrast is really super black, lighter parts nice light also.

to be continued..

 

[Alan Townsend]

Yes, very nice prints. How did you apply the oil? Does it make the paper fragil? Did you dry it out before printing or did you use it wet and if printed wet does it make an oily surface on the print that needs to be cleaned off before processing? Sorry for all the questions.

 

[Jan de Jong]

Yes, very nice prints. How did you apply the oil? Does it make the paper fragil? Did you dry it out before printing or did you use it wet and if printed wet does it make an oily surface on the print that needs to be cleaned off before processing? Sorry for all the questions.

Hi Alan, I just printed the normal office paper in the inkjet, let that dry a bit, then put it on some tissue paper and take another piece of tissue paper and put some oil on that and then apply it slowly over backside of the print. You will see where you have put oil as the print from the other side becomes visible. After you have finished check it against the light to see if it all is what you want. Then I leave it some time like an hour and then take another piece of tissue paper and "polish" it clean of oil, just like you would shine your shoes more or less. Most of the oil will have been absorbed by the paper anyway. The oil makes the paper more rigid, it is not like water. After it is oiled it feels and sound more like a plastic sheet.
Because i am impatient I will make a print direct after. The ink seems not to mind about the oil and the front side oil if any does not cause effects on the cyanotype emulsion.
Just very important is good contact between the negative and the emulsion paper.

I just tried, not tests and it seems to work fine. For the FerroBlend it has a very linear response , so no special curves used. I am still tweaking it a bit to see if I can get full control on it.
For now I found that using the cyanotype coated paper in the next hours is better than leaving it a day.
I will try another time also some of the now used oiled negatives to see if they can still be used or age or loose transparency. For now that all looks ok.