Bronzing with palladium...what am I doing wrong?

[sly]

I've got some contrasty negs that don't need any Na2 for printing, just palladium. (My usual negs have needed a fair amount of Na2 to print.)
I made a test strip that looked lovely. I've made a number of prints, and they are all bronzing. The one I've posted here is the least bronzed of the bunch.

I tried a few extra drops so there'd be lots of sensitizer, as my experience was that thin coating led to bronzing. Didn't work. I tried putting fewer drops on the page, and spreading it kinda thin (C.James suggested too much coating and puddling as being a possible cause.) That one was terribly bronzed. James also suggests that bronzing happens when the paper's not dry enough, so I spread another sheet and then cut it up. Waited 10 minutes longer than usual for the 1st peice to dry (hung up in the dark). The longest a piece rested before being exposed was an hour. They all bronzed about the same.

I'm being careful about washing the brush with distilled water, using the same paper (cot320), and the same sideof the paper. The paper for the test strip was from the same package of Cot 320. I've been trying for 3 days now, and the initial test is still the only decent one.

Any suggestions from the experts?

The first thumbnail is bronzed, the 2nd is the test strip.

 

[dpurdy]

I think what you have is otherwise known as solarizing. Supposedly Palladium solarizes much more easily than Platinum. If you have a drop of Platinum to put in the mix it might fix it. Otherwise I would try steaming the heck out of the coated dried paper before printing. I haven't actually ever had the problem and am just taking a guess at it because I see it has been awhile and no one has responded yet.
Dennis

 

[JLP]

No expert here. Have you tried to change the humidity in your darkroom? I never print until 2 hours after coating. I will raise the humidity to 65% minimum a day before i plan on printing and will leave each sheet of coated paper in an empty FB paper box until printing all in the darkroom at 65% humidity or more.
I gave up on Cot 320 a long time ago, always had to double coat it to get a decent print.

 

[sly]

Thanks for your replies -

Dennis - I did try a drop of 2.5% Na2, but it didn't help.

JLP - you must have a pretty skookum darkroom. Mine's in an outbuilding - cold running water only, not as much room as I'd like, difficult to get warm enough if the weather gets really cold. There couldn't have been any change in the humidity between that lovely test strip, and the first bronzed print.

That said - I'll try humidity and see if it helps.

The Cot320's been working OK for me when I use more Na2. I did do some prints in the last few days that were fine - it's just these palladium ones that are driving me nuts. What paper do you prefer? If it's any easier to get than cot320 I'm definitely interested. How do you coat it?