i dug into a 1 kg jar of foma emulsion the other day. i know i can make my own but i have this still on hand so i might as well just use it until i run out. coating paper and glass and metal with it will be great practice for when i don’t want to waste stuff i spend time making on my own. so i took a few of the large sheets of xerox paper i had already coated. i took 1 of them and with the lights on i exposed it in developer to show how poorly i coat. it wasn’t that poor, it just wasn’t very good, no it was pretty bad … it was a lot of grey, only 1 area of black. i’ve been coating things for years and this is the first time i did this … that’s ok. im a noob, even after 30 years. i used a coating rod the last time, and a brush, but still things weren’t as good as i had hoped. with denise ross’s book in hand, or at least in my mind
( if you haven’t gotten her blurb book and you like coating things, and making things, it is worth every penny you pay for it: http://www.blurb.com/b/6465389-the-light-farm ..) i never thought about paper grain ( now i do ) i never thought about wet coating ( now i do ).
i took the remaining 2 sheets of paper and cut them into 4×5 pieces and soaked them in cold water. this isn’t really what denise did in the book but that’s ok. it is easy to tell which side is emulsion and which isn’t ( the emulsion side is slippery ). i took my squeegee and removed the water from the prints 1 at a time and with warm emulsion i re-coated each piece of paper. i looked at each piece in the safelight and they looked coated ( i guess they always do ) but coating 4×5 pieces was always easy for me, so my fingers are crossed that the 2nd emulsion layer took. i’ve coated cyanotypes 2x, and other stuff 2x but never wet. i’m hoping denise’s invention and my twisting it for my own needs took.
i also took some sheets of regular paper and coated that stuff too. 1 sheet folds and cuts into 18 4x5s. i’m still trying to figure out what it is. i did a little research and it seems to be “virgin” butcher paper. uline sells it cut into the same size sheets or on a big roll. alex art supply also sells something similar to it. in both cases it isn’t the same weight (thickness) but it seems similar enough that when i runout at least i will have something to buy. smooth finish paper i like best for coating. nyways, i cut 1 sheet up soaked and squeegeed it and coated 14 pieces. they are hanging on the line.