its been a while since i made the emulsion i wrote about here
but that isn’t to say it hasnt been on my mind since a year ago january. i’ve been distracted with life and trying to finish off all my film, and making more sun and retina
and cyanotype prints. but this morning i decided to make some more go-juice.
i dont’ really have a recipe that belongs to someone else i follow but i mix and match hoping it will work, this time around here is what i am doing:
120cc water
4g iodized salt
12g potassium bromide
1cc of watered down D72 !
20g hard bloom gelatin
( my last batch was knox gelatin, it worked OK for a little while but eventually the gelatin broke down and made a mess )
i heated up the water and added and stirred all the ingredients so they are mixed and dissolved well. the water i put in a cheap metal pot
and i heated it up on the single burner i use to roast my coffee. when everything got dissolved and well mixed i took the salted gelatin out of the pot
it’s now sitting on the enlarger table. i’ll go back down in a little bit and re-heat it to liquid again as i mix the silver nitrate and water together.
next is the silver nitrate i put on an apron, gloves and EYE GOGGLES and measured 32g silver nitrate and 120cc warm water.
and mixed this until it was completely dissolved.
with the safelight on and the salted gelatin warm i stirred like mad and slowly mixed the silver nitrate into the gelatin.
eyesight is nothing to play with, and silver nitrate will blind you without a second thought. always use eye protection !
anyways i dribbled and mixed the silver nitrate in there and the whole mixture turned white.
i’ll use this as a paper emulsion, so i won’t bother to wash it. i put the ball jar into a locking air tight container
and then in a black paper bag and stuck it in the refrigerator to set.
i have no clue if it will work or not, i’m looking forward to finding out soon !
in a few days i will coat some paper and expose it and post my results
OK it is the next day and i really couldn’t help myself …
the emulsion was put in one of those hinged jars that have a rubber seal, like the stuff you might
have on your counter with coffee beans or sugar or whatever .. the bell jar was inside that .. the whole thing in
a black bag photo paper usually comes in when it is in the box .. i didn’t really trust that the jar i put it in was light proof
so i bagged it when i put it in the little fridge.
the moment of truth ..
i brought the jar to the red room and opened it, and it set ( WHEW ! ) i always worry i didn’t put enough gelatin in there
and it would be a watery mess. it was emulsion alright
i scooped a little out and warmed / melted it and painted it onto some card stock.
its drying now … but when its dry i will rip it in half and hide half of it. i’ll put something on the card and turn the lights on
and make a photogram in some dektol and see if this stuff works. after that i will put s cut piece in my K1000 and make a test strip to determine
exposure times and iso’s. and easy way i usually do is f 11, block the lens off and make a series of 1 second exposures. and develop the strip to see what happens.
OK …
well i realized the watered down 1cc ( if that ) of liquid i added at the end was dektol, not hypo
i hate amber bottles !
i did my first 2 tests and coated some more paper.
the photogram i made i counted to 6 with the room light on and it made a killer photogram.
i handheld a slip inside a camera f2 $ 15 seconds and it looks to be about right.
they are still washing and more paper is drying so i can’t really say for sure what everything is.
i know if in the camera ends up being too tedious i make enough photograms and sun prints it won’t be an issue using this home brew emulsion
