Carbon printing

[Bruce]

Are any folks making carbon printers?

I have taken 2 workshops from Sandy King and have 2 images included in his book. I would like to discuss the subject of RELIEF. Why and how does it happen? What affects how much RELIEF there is on the final print. Are some support papers better than others. Does the % of dichromate affect RELIEF? Many more questions.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I've been carbon transfer printing for 11 years now. When I started out, it was all about relief. For the past five or so years, I don't care about it. My prints have minimal relief, and look great. If I want more relief, I reduce the amount of pigment in the glop, and expose longer. My paper of choice is matte acrylic sized Arches Platine. For even more relief, I'll print on matte fibre base photo paper. Some images show more relief than others. If image has a lot of dark tones against light tones (black against white for example), relief is more prominent. I should add that my tissues are about 2mm thick when poured. I've tried thicker tissues, but they would usually dry with ripples.. Oh and I expose my tissue using a halogen. It seems to cut deeper into the tissue, compared to my BLB exposure table.

 

[Bruce]

Andrew
Thanks for the info. Like you indicated, some prints have more RELIEF than others. This seems odd to me. I guess I just dont understand why this happens. I will keep printing and try the recommendation to reduce the pigment load in the GLOP.

 

[SMBooth]

I get relief (not huge) using fixed out glossy paper. It won't happen on rag papers.

 

[Bruce]

thanks for the comments

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I get relief (not huge) using fixed out glossy paper. It won't happen on rag papers.

Yes, it will, but not as much as fixed out matte photo paper... If you acrylic size a paper with smooth surface, like Arches Platine, you can get very similar relief. The transfer sits on top of the acrylic. I've been doing it this way for years.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Bruce, have you signed up at Sandy King's carbon forum?