Postcard Exchange Round 37 Comments and Feedback

George Nova Scotia · Feb 1, 2016

As before a new thread for comments, updates and feedback. The PMs with the address lists have been sent.Please check that your information is correct. Let me know as soon as possible of any corrections.

Please wait a few days for any corrections then let the mailings begin. There have been address changes so check carefully. Please check that your name is the first on your list.

anikin (MAX)
astroclimb (20)
Black Dog (MAX)
bmccarthy007 (MAX)
dpn (25)
drpsilver (MAX)
kraker (15)
labcoat (15)
Laurent (30)
MattKing (24)
megzdad81 (25)
mesantacruz (MAX)
mike c (MAX)
mooseontheloose (MAX)
Oxleyroad (MAX)
ozphoto (25)
piu58 (10)
Randalcav (20)
Xia_Ke (ALL)

MattKing · Feb 1, 2016

George:

Is your address unchanged? If so, I want to add you to the "special" addresses.

George Nova Scotia · Feb 1, 2016

Yes, still the same address. Might be moving this summer but not sure. I've been trying to catch up but the old body dosn't want to play along.

Thanks

mooseontheloose · Feb 1, 2016

Thanks for doing this George. Looking forward to another round!

Oxleyroad · Feb 9, 2016

9 cards of 19 done. Hope to post Saturday.

Great to be back in my dark room after 12months without one.

mooseontheloose · Feb 9, 2016

Well, got my first postcard of this round yesterday, piu58's "Breakfast place, Pittler works". Nice play of light and shadow, and it's nice to have an image from a not-so-common camera. Makes me feel like dusting off my Horizon!

anikin · Feb 10, 2016

Printed a new (special) version of postcards. The cards that I've done in December will to go a next, hopefully bigger exchange, since I made too many. My new cards are now folded, signed and sealed in their envelopes. I just need to get a few more international stamps and put them into the mailbox.

anikin · Feb 12, 2016

... And my cards are in the mailbox!!!

ozphoto · Feb 15, 2016

Uwe's great card arrived today - love the full-frame 35mm and that paper is divine!!
Gotta get my hands on some - it's lovely.

Oxleyroad · Feb 15, 2016

My cards are in the hands of he USPS.

drpsilver · Feb 17, 2016

17 Feb 2016

I received my first card for Round 37 yesterday from anikin. It is a wonderful cyanotype of an unicorn. The image is magical, and the cyanotype very well done. A coupe of questions about your process in making these very nice cards:
1. Where did you get the x-ray film, and how did you expose it?
2. What was your coating, and drying, procedure for the cyanotype chemistry? There is little evidence of excess chemistry near the edges of the paper.
3. How did you flatten the paper so well?

Overall, very well done.

Regards,
Darwin

anikin · Feb 17, 2016

Hi Darwin,

I'm glad you like it!

1. The xray film is a regular blue X-ray film 8x10". I think I got it from e-bay a few years back. I processed it in my regular paper developer (Ansco 130) and normal stop/fixer. Exposed it under enlarger. It's about as sensitive as photo paper, so it was just as easy as printing a photo.
2. The cyanotype chemistry is a classical formula. Coated using a disposable 2" foam brush from Home Depot. The inter-positive fully covered the paper being exposed so you don't see anything on the edges. Dried all the cards overnight in my garage on any available flat surface. Early in the morning I quickly gathered them all and stored in a dark place. It's exposing them that was the hardest part. The exposures are 1hr each under a home-made UV box. Over-washing tends to lighten the image too much, so I had to carefully watch the prints while doing the wash. Even then I had to throw away about a third of them because they were not acceptable.
3. I did not flatten it at all. Unlike gelatin-based coatings, cyanotype does not create much of a layer on top of the paper, so curling is minimal. Besides, I mailed the cards in the envelopes, so they got automatically flattened by the post office service

Cheers,

Eugene.

mike c · Feb 17, 2016

Anikin, just got your card yesterday, what a cool and unique card, I suppose the little dots that make up the unicorn are the lights.

Thanks
Mike

Oxleyroad · Feb 18, 2016

My first card also arrived yesterday. Anikin, thanks for the explanation of how it was made.

anikin · Feb 18, 2016

mike c said:
Anikin, just got your card yesterday, what a cool and unique card, I suppose the little dots that make up the unicorn are the lights.

Thanks
Mike

Yup. They are string lights that make up decorations. Strictly speaking, I cheated on this card. What you see is a negative, not positive image. But I like it better that way

Eugene.

mike c · Feb 18, 2016

OK, that makes sense, with the intervening positive. looks great.

Black Dog · Feb 18, 2016

drpsilver said:
17 Feb 2016

I received my first card for Round 37 yesterday from anikin. It is a wonderful cyanotype of an unicorn. The image is magical, and the cyanotype very well done. A coupe of questions about your process in making these very nice cards:
1. Where did you get the x-ray film, and how did you expose it?
2. What was your coating, and drying, procedure for the cyanotype chemistry? There is little evidence of excess chemistry near the edges of the paper.
3. How did you flatten the paper so well?

Overall, very well done.

Regards,
Darwin

+1 on that...arrived today and thanks

TheTrailTog · Feb 18, 2016

I received 2 cards today...

"Unicorn" from anikin - This is very cool. I've reread the above posts a couple times and am admittedly at a loss for how the image was created. Would love to hear more about the process!

"Breakfast Place" from piu58 - My wife says "thanks" because you've got me shopping around for a pano camera...lol You did well handling what I imagine was a contrasty scene. What did you use to emboss your signature?

drpsilver · Feb 18, 2016

anikin said:
Hi Darwin,

I'm glad you like it!

1. The xray film is a regular blue X-ray film 8x10". I think I got it from e-bay a few years back. I processed it in my regular paper developer (Ansco 130) and normal stop/fixer. Exposed it under enlarger. It's about as sensitive as photo paper, so it was just as easy as printing a photo.
2. The cyanotype chemistry is a classical formula. Coated using a disposable 2" foam brush from Home Depot. The inter-positive fully covered the paper being exposed so you don't see anything on the edges. Dried all the cards overnight in my garage on any available flat surface. Early in the morning I quickly gathered them all and stored in a dark place. It's exposing them that was the hardest part. The exposures are 1hr each under a home-made UV box. Over-washing tends to lighten the image too much, so I had to carefully watch the prints while doing the wash. Even then I had to throw away about a third of them because they were not acceptable.
3. I did not flatten it at all. Unlike gelatin-based coatings, cyanotype does not create much of a layer on top of the paper, so curling is minimal. Besides, I mailed the cards in the envelopes, so they got automatically flattened by the post office service

Cheers,

Eugene.

18 Feb 2016

Eugene:

Thanks for an outline of how you created the card. Most of my cyanotype prints have used 4x5 negs on 4x6 pieces of watercolor paper. Watercolor paper (~ 130 lb) is much thicker than the paper you used, and has a tendency to curl a little. I also have dried most of my coating from a sink-sized cloths line, not flat. I will have to develop a method for drying paper flat. You have given me some ideas for my next cyanotype project - thank you.

Regards,
Darwin

piu58 · Feb 19, 2016

> What did you use to emboss your signature?

I think the English term is seal embosser, in German Prägezange or Prägestempel. I tried to find something English for you: http://www.thestampmaker.com/embossers.aspx

ozphoto · Feb 20, 2016

Anakin's wonderful unicorn arrived today - I've only ever done cyanotypes at college, and admit I really enjoyed the process!
Interesting to read how you created it, has given me another item to put on my to-do list.

Laurent · Feb 20, 2016

Hi,

I received Anikin's card yesterday, and got very intrigued, due to the visual confusion between a drawing and a print. I like the concept!

Thanks !

drpsilver · Feb 20, 2016

20 Feb 2016

A card from Oxlyroad arrived in my mailbox of "Cacti Balls". The surprise was that it had US postage instead of Australian. Welcome to the US, Oxleyroad. I have never been to Michigan, but my Dad who grew-up in Detroit, told me about some of the natural beauty.

Regards,
Darwin

Randalcav · Feb 21, 2016

I have received two nice cards this week.

Oxleyroad: I'm glad to read only the paper was stressed from your move and not you personally. This is a very nice composition at the conservatory, what a fantastic place to shoot. Glad your darkroom is up and running in the USA. I recently considered using ID11 as a film developer, but have chosen to use XTOL instead. Thanks for the card.

Anikin: Thanks for the time and great effort you spent to produce the amazing cyanotype image of the unicorn. This is probably the first image of the rare unicorn ever produced in Prussian blue. I'm glad you protected your work in the envelope, it arrived in mint condition.

Randal

anikin · Feb 22, 2016

I too have received a prickly card from Oxleyroad. These are some gorgeous cactii!!! For being thermally stressed, the print came out very nicely - you can almost touch the balls - not that you would want to.
Welcome to the States!

Postcard Exchange Round 37 Comments and Feedback

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