Svinotype: A Photographic Process Using Easily Available Reagents

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

Found this interesting article that describes a copper-based photographic process called Svinotype:

https://seos.fr/blog/doc/acs.jchemed.0c00467.pdf

The process is based on "the reaction between copper sulfate and ascorbic acid with the addition of a small quantity of alkali."

Here is a video by the inventor demonstrating the process:

The coating technique employed is quite remarkable and probably unique.

Here is a nice Svinotype example that I found on the web:

https://x.com/ccanfield100/status/1380590703021977601

Apparently Svinotype prints fade in the first 24 hours and then remain stable:

https://x.com/cphlmy/status/1648068630716862469

Anyone here has attempted to make Svinotype?

 

[Jan de Jong]

I know the video, looks a good candidate for my Inkjet printer where then to put ascorbic acid in the printer cartridge
Pre coating the paper to make it alkaline, then coat with copper-sulfate and probably while still moist print on the ascorbic acid image.
I think it reacts to UV and Blue light in moist conditions, so probably cover it with plastic wrap during exposure.

I will have to do some tests

 

[koraks]

The coating technique employed is quite remarkable and probably unique.

That's pretty eccentric, indeed. Although not unique; I've seen pretty much the same approach being adopted for applying solder mask to a home-made PCB:


Which, frankly I find a rather messy approach, so I always use a rubber roller to apply it. Solder mask that is, not svinotype. I had never heard of that one!

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

I know the video, looks a good candidate for my Inkjet printer

Sounds like a great idea! Will look forward to seeing your results.

 

[Jan de Jong]

Sounds like a great idea! Will look forward to seeing your results.

I will do some test without printing first, if it works I will post it of course.

 

[jemmybutton]

This process can be quite fiddly to set up and often depends on the specific paper type you use. Also the mixture seems to be sensitive to oxygen, so you need it to be covered with your negative pretty much as soon as it touches the paper.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

This process can be quite fiddly to set up and often depends on the specific paper type you use. Also the mixture seems to be sensitive to oxygen, so you need it to be covered with your negative pretty much as soon as it touches the paper.

Welcome @jemmybutton!

I can vouch for the sensitivity of the mixture to air, I tried to brush coat the sensitiser and ended up with fog.

Have you tried Sulphide toning your Svinotypes? Does it work?

 

[jemmybutton]

Welcome @jemmybutton!

I can vouch for the sensitivity of the mixture to air, I tried to brush coat the sensitiser and ended up with fog.

Have you tried Sulphide toning your Svinotypes? Does it work?

I did try different ways to tone the images, but had very little success, to be honest. As far as I understand the chemistry of the process, it's ultimately Cu²⁺ being reduced to metallic copper in the exposed areas, so the image is formed by metallic copper, but it's quickly oxidized to copper oxides (turning the image from reddish-brown to grey). So I tried the same things which are used to form patinas on copper, including trying to turn whatever remained of copper into sulphides (using a piece of hard-boiled egg). It didn't do anything, afair. Ammonia simply destroyed the image. Preserving the copper color with varnish didn't seem to work very well also.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

I did try different ways to tone the images, but had very little success, to be honest. As far as I understand the chemistry of the process, it's ultimately Cu²⁺ being reduced to metallic copper in the exposed areas, so the image is formed by metallic copper, but it's quickly oxidized to copper oxides (turning the image from reddish-brown to grey). So I tried the same things which are used to form patinas on copper, including trying to turn whatever remained of copper into sulphides (using a piece of hard-boiled egg). It didn't do anything, afair. Ammonia simply destroyed the image. Preserving the copper color with varnish didn't seem to work very well also.

As many compounds of Copper are mordants, toning with polyphenols might work well with Svinotypes. Haritaki, for instance, does work well with Copper Ferrocyanide.

 

[jemmybutton]

I found some old prints, and took photos of those. Neither is great, but they may be helpful as a reference.

1. The one with the ugly guy with a blue nose (mabuse.jpg) was printed from the same negative image as in the video from the first message. Maybe it's even the same print. As you can see it faded significantly, but, I believe, it stopped fading after a day or two and didn't fade more in the next 5+ years. The nose is blue due to my attempts at toning the print with ammonia vapors (back then). I gather, it only changed the background color from yellow to blueish.
2. "Cycles perfecta" print is an ok print made using the same method.
3. "Haeckel" print shows that the method can technically provide decent resolution
4. "Plywood" print is quite bad, but it shows that the method can technically work on plywood
5. Raven fledgeling print was made from the same negative as the one on the cover of JCEd. Not sure if it's the same one, which I poured something onto, or a different print from the same batch.

Prints 1-3 were printed on alkaline paper, and for prints 4 and 5 I treated the plywood and the paper myself. It's way easier to print on alkaline paper, but not even two batches of the same brand work the same, so I just had a pack of "good" paper to print on, but couldn't reliably reproduce the result, hence I chose to treat paper myself to make it more reproducible.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

@jemmybutton: these are very nice and have a charm different from cuprotype prints! Thanks for sharing.