#chrysotype

“Pega y sombrea lento

y un sordo sol amargo 

rueda al fondo. 

Entre cosas oscuras 

entre líquenes 

entre formas babosas y vibrantes 

un golpe y un susurro 

un golpe 

y un susurro 

que se apaga 

se borra.”

                                                                                                 Idea Vilariño

The Love of my Life, Easter 2022, Handmade Chrysotype Photo Print on Hahnemuehle Platinum Rag, 5"x7", 100% analog process direct from film negative. Shot on Ilford HP5+ and developed in D-23. Camera was a Burke & James 5x7 View Camera with Zeiss 300mm f/8 APO process lens. ©2022-23, MC - All Rights Reserved.

I have been asked several times about my nocturnal writings, this random collection of thoughts expressed each evening before bedtime. Tonight, I’ll share the scoop and clue you in about what’s happening.

(more…)

Rhodium prints out (when it is minded to do so) with AFFO-8:1%C -- that is when mixed at 10% strength with an equal number of drops of ammonium ferric ferrous oxalate prepared by mixing thoroughly 8 drops of 1% ascorbic acid with 10 ml of 40% ammonium ferric oxalate. ON THE RIGHT PAPER. The right paper for rhodium is strathmore bristol 500 plate, and probably Bergger cot 320 and also 90 lb Fabriano Artistico (see below). The old Arches Platine probably would have been fine, but I am so unhappy with the new Arches Platine ... what a loss of such a splendid paper!

10% Rhodium prints out with 10% gold and AFFO-8:1%C down to AFFO-3:1%C on a 1:1 drop basis for the two metals and the AFFO (eg. 6 Au, 6 Rh, 12 AFFO). Less C added to the ammonium ferric oxalate, such as AFFO-3:1%C, translates to lower contrast. Papers for rhodium-gold: 90# Fabriano Artistico (low contrast AFFO, AFFO-3:1% through AFFO-5:1%), Bergger Cot 320 (high contrast AFFO, such as 8:1% C), and maybe Arches Platine (you would need to add contrast booster such as potassium chlorate or 26% ferric oxalate -- no C added!). NOTE: contrary to my thinking yesterday, a test today showed that palladium is not useful in any way when mixed with gold AND rhodium. Contrast falls off the table. Same with platinum. The reason for this is you must use only 1%C AFFO solutions with gold and you must use only 2%C AFFO solutions with palladium and platinum. Possible combinations are: Rh-Au, Rh-Au-Ir, Rh-Pd, Rh-Pd-Ir, Rh-Pt, Rh-Pt-Ir, Rh-Pd-Pt, Rh-Pd-Pt-Ir.

10% rhodium prints out with platinum and/or palladium at 10% or their usual 20% and 15% solutions when mixed with AFFO-8:2% -- 8 drops of 2% C mixed thoroughly with 10ml of 40% ammonium ferric oxalate. Known good papers are Bergger Cot 320 and Arches Platine. Fabriano Artistico and Arnheim are not suitable. I have not tried Hahnemuhle (despite having 23 sheets of 22x30 under my bed).

Generally, as with iridium, I find the best results are obtained with a sensitizer that is 60% rhodium or less. Exception: if you test your rhodium one day and it prints out fully, then grab a big negative and go for it. You will be pleased with the results.

If you do go crazy and decide to try your luck with rhodium, take the same extreme care as with platinum and palladium to dissolve the gritty rhodium chloride in warm water at 80 to 90 degrees fahrenheit. 75 is not warm enough, I know for a fact. As when preparing platinum, Do NOT add salt or other chlorides (such as sodium chloride, potassium chloride, ammonium chloride) to the rhodium. It is not necessary; you only add salt, sodium chloride, when mixing up palladium. Gold, platinum and rhodium go into solution without any need to add sodium chloride. Last week I prepared some rhodium forgetting to warm the water (it was probably 75 degrees fahrenheit, not quite warm enough) and adding .5 gram sodium chloride to a gram of rhodium trichloride. I had to heat the mixture afterward to get it to dissolve completely, and the salt still precipitates out of solution overnight. What a nuisance!

Note: the highlights in the aurhodiotype from yesterday did not darken down enough on drying. It's too contrasty. Sunlight today was too spotty to prep and print yet another 11x14 -- next week, I'll make another one with whichever solution of AFFO tests to be best for the negative: AFFO-3:1%, AFFO-4:1%, or AFFO-5:1%. That is, add either 3 drops of 1% C solution, or 4 drops or 5 drops to 40ml of ammonium ferric oxalate. The difference between AFFO-3:1% or AFFO-4:1%, on the one hand, and AFF0-8:1% on the other hand is quite dramatic.

I've been trying to get set up for a repeat of my overly contrasty rh-au print of yesterday. First I tried palladium and rhodium, 1 drop of pd and 2 of rhodium. No print out (on Fabrianno Artistico). Then I tried 1 drop pd and 1 rhodium. No print out. So I switched to platinum -- 1 pt, 2 rh and after no print out, 1 pt and 1 rh. Still no print out. Some Xtian bible thumpers stopped by to evangelize me. I teased them, for I'm wicked: What if you stepped out your front door one day and the sky was a color you had never before seen? Is it the devil? Or the divine? I should've told them to F off, but the girl might be able to teach me all about the Pentecost and the working of miracles with tongues!

Anyway, I finally tried 1 drop 10% au and 2 of 10% rh. Full lovely print out. Currently a sheet of FA coated with 30 drops of rhodium and 20 of gold, mixed with 44 drops of 7:1%C AFFO, is drying in my downstairs closet. The extra rhodium and lower AFFO (as compared to yesterday) should result in lower contrast and hold the highlights in the star flowers of the hyacinth. I swear I'm going to get a decent camera. In fact, since the Swedish chucklehead who filmed a documentary about Ed Buffaloe (unblinkingeye.com), Spiffy Tumbledweed (URL? google him), Hector Hernandez (google him in Austin, Tx), and yours truly is still farting around one and a half years later, I"m going to Cabelas (yeah!!!! love cabelas!!!) and buy a Hero Pro 4 hunting video camera which is the regular one with camo finish for $50 off and shoot my own damned documentary about my processes. But that's aside. I"m waiting for the sensitizer to dry down and then I print. It'll be fine.

I prepared a sensitizer consisting of 24 drops of 10% gold chloride and 36 drops of Ammonium Ferric Ferrous Oxalate (7 drops of 1% C added to 10 ml of 40% ammonium ferric oxalate and shaken vigorously for 15 seconds). This was for an 11x14 electrumtype. I brushed the solution onto a 15x20 (inch, not millimeter) sheet of Fabriano Artistico (my new fav paper for gold!). I set it out in the sun in contact with a neg of Kary as an angel swept across the sky: her wings are the curved rib bones of a bovine, her head piece the shoulder blades of the bovine (you can see the negative as an omnitype -- au-pd-pt-rh-ir-ru -- on www.texaschrysotype.com).

Negative was the wondrous Agfa copex rapid 120 exposed in my Bronica SQ-B and developed in Caffenol L C C, low contrast caffenol. (Copex rapid is a panchromatic, not superpanchro, film comparable in quality to the defunct technical pan film -- truly 4x5 quality from 120 and I know as I generally use 4x5 instead.)

Saturday, May 7 2016. I drove to the art store and bought 1 sheet of Strathmore 500 Board Bristol Vellum finish, one same with Bristol Plate finish, 1 each of Fabriano Artistico 140 gsm bright and natural hot press, and a sheet of Fabriano Artistico 300 gsm natural hot press. Also, a packet of union square rag cotton watercolor paper, smooth finish, and an aquaboard brand watercolor panel. Results of tests: slight print out on the aquaboard and the Union Square. (Everything tests fine for printing with gold, however...)

Intuition tells me it is not the paper, but the rhodium chloride solution failing. My successful print out earlier this week was almost certainly a small amount of gold and/or palladium on the brush, and was probably affected by the high relative humidity with all the thunderstorm activity this past week. The Sullivan lithium palladium print out process only works (sometimes) if you heavily hydrate the paper. All of the Ware - Sullivan processes are derived directly from Pizzighelli's print out paper of the 1880s. That failed commercially because of its inconsistency.