metalic gold (not gold tone) in certain areas...how?

Saw several sets of small silver prints ( 5X7 at largest) with selected highlight areas of what was said to be, and appeared to be, metalic gold. These had been printed in numbered editions.

How could this have been done? Looked like metalic gold plating...not smooth, somewhat mottled, sharply contained within certain subject areas.

The smaller prints were framed with antique/re-used floral stamped metal frames..like those used with daguerrotypes.

Could it have been gold leaf? I've seen silver prints with gold leaf added. I wondered about how the gold was affixed to the print, though.

I suppose one could apply adhesive with a tiny brush and apply the gold leaf selectively.

I have printed platinum/palladium on cotton vellum backed by 24 carat gold leaf ala Dan Burkholder. The vellum is rather translucent and the gold shows through varying with the density of the overlying image. There is a specific adhesive to hold the gold leaf. The pure gold sticks to itself so it is easy to get complete coverage. I guess that the silver print may have had the adhesive applied as mentioned by cholliefan but you would probably have to use some type of a separating medium where you didn't want the gold to go because it is VERY thin and can stick to surfaces with no adhesive as well.

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jtk said:

Saw several sets of small silver prints ( 5X7 at largest) with selected highlight areas of what was said to be, and appeared to be, metalic gold. These had been printed in numbered editions.

How could this have been done? Looked like metalic gold plating...not smooth, somewhat mottled, sharply contained within certain subject areas.

The smaller prints were framed with antique/re-used floral stamped metal frames..like those used with daguerrotypes.

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Were they on glass? If so, check out Orotones. Not sure about "sharply contained within certain subject areas" though. They are made by a coat of gold or brass bearing paste in the back the glass.

nmp said:

Were they on glass? If so, check out Orotones. Not sure about "sharply contained within certain subject areas" though. They are made by a coat of gold or brass bearing paste in the back the glass.

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Yes Mr. Patel ! ...they were identified as "Orotones." I forgot that. By "sharply contained" I meant they showed sharply defined edges, like litho film or photo silkscreen (which I suspected).

I didn't observe glass (except that of the overall frame that was over the entire print and embossed metal frames) ...but perhaps thin-enough glass (such as lanternslide), especially if anti-newton that was reversed to have the anti-newton etching facing outward rather than against the photos (anti-newton would have killed reflections thereby making that glass invisible).

By the way, you've posted the only non-distracting soundtrack with photos that I've ever heard on your zenfolio. What music is that?

Great work!

Love Orotones, there are a few people regularly doing that process on flickr, think I have seen one or two here.. Its on my to do list, like a lot of processes.

jtk said:

Yes Mr. Patel ! ...they were identified as "Orotones." I forgot that. By "sharply contained" I meant they showed sharply defined edges, like litho film or photo silkscreen (which I suspected).

I didn't observe glass (except that of the overall frame that was over the entire print and embossed metal frames) ...but perhaps thin-enough glass (such as lanternslide), especially if anti-newton that was reversed to have the anti-newton etching facing outward rather than against the photos (anti-newton would have killed reflections thereby making that glass invisible).

By the way, you've posted the only non-distracting soundtrack with photos that I've ever heard on your zenfolio. What music is that?

Great work!

Click to expand...

I wonder if you saw the original Edward Curtis orotones. There are a few modern practitioners as well. There was a thread here about it recently that you can look up for some more info. Some details here on how they are made: http://www.c4gallery.com/pedagogy/orotone.html

About the music on my site...I just used one of the free tracks that were available when I set it up, the criteria was indeed not to be a nuisance - hence the choice. Glad you agree. As far what it is, for the life of me I can not figure it out. My slide show settings show I have no tracks selected and this particular track is not be found in the list of free tracks anymore. But mysteriously it still plays when the page is opened. Do appreciate your compliments on the content. I think I need to revisit and edit a few pictures out. Perhaps there are a little too many. Also need to get out and do some new work, which lately seems to have become more elusive...

:Niranjan.