Introduction

Earlier this year, I was very interested with the paper making and photography modules. Because of this interest of mine, I decided that for my final project, I would make hand made paper and then perform photgraphy on that paper. I eventually decided, with Dr. Bordley's help, to use liquid light photographic emulsion (GLOSSARY: a speedy, alternative photographic process using a silver nitrate emulsion). This is very different from the other tyes of photography we have used this year. It is a hand applied, silver nitrate emulsion that resembles the gray tone of commercial photographic paper, like that we used earlier this year. However, it is much speedier in the exposure process under the UV apparatus than what we have previously witnessed. Also, liquid light comes in a gelatin form that must be heated up in a beaker full of warm water in order to become liquid enough to apply. As liquid light is new, it lacks contrast, which it gains as it ages. This photographic process is a very interesting alternative photography to experiment with.

The paper that I will make will be from varying types of pulp, some white, others colored, some cotton, others pine. I hypothesize that the white pulp will probably work the best. I hypothesize, using my conclusions from our previous lab this semester, that the cotton pulp will also be the best. So therefore, I hypothesize that the white cotton pulp will work the best with this process.

Background

This liquid light emulsion was used first by authors over thirty years ago to develop the Pi System. Silver nitrate solutions, like this one, are known to be very successful for use with handmade papers, which is why I wanted to use it with my hand made paper. It is designed to be easily applied to any material. It can even be used to print photographs onto wood, glass, plastics, fabrics, metals, and stone.

Procedure

My project studies the relationship between photography and hand made paper, and therefore requires many materials and two distinguished processes.

For Papermaking: 

I made three sheets of each type of paper. I varied the amount of pulp I used for each type of pulp because they all had varying consistencies. I used 80ml of white pine pulp, 300ml of white cotton pulp, 100ml of blue jean pulp, 300ml of light pink cotton pulp, and 300ml of dark pink/red cotton pulp.

1. Scoop up amount of already beaten pulp specified above into a beaker.
2. Pour pulp into deckel box that has already been set up and that already contains water.
3. Drop in five drops of sizing.



 

4. Mix water, pulp and sizing mixture with metal wire screen.
5. Turn handle so water flows out of deckel box.
6. Once hear sucking sound, turn handle to close deckel box.

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7. Undo deckel box and remove wire screen from box.
8. Flip screen onto pelon, which is on top of a sheet of felt, then press and carefully remove screen, leaving a sheet of rectangular pulp.

 



 

9. Place a pelon on top of pulp and then a sheet of felt on top of that.
10. Roll over layers of felt and pelon with a water filled coke bottle carefully ten times to squeeze out excess water.
11. Remove top layers of pelon and felt.
12. Flip pulp sheet on the bottom sheet of pelon onto a large drying board.

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13. Leave to dry at least overnight.
14. Repeat steps 1-13 with each additional sheet of paper.

NOTE: Unfortunately, there are no photographs for this part of the procedure because this process had to be completed in almost complete darkness and exposure to light would have ruined my project.

1. Emerse the bottle of liquid light into a large beaker filled with warm water, and let the gelatin become a solid.
2. Turn off all lights except for the small ceiling red light.
3. Once your eyes are adjusted to the minute amount of light and the emulsion has liquidified, pour just enough liquid light into a small beaker to coat your paper.
4. Use the spongy brush and coat your sheet of paper.

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5. Place sheet on drying rack between twenty minutes and two hours; whenever the emulsion is dry to the point of being sticky, it is ready. (NOTE: the emulsion scratches easily.)
6. Repeat steps 3-5 for each sheet of paper
7. While the paper is drying, set up the processing sequence.
8. In the first bucket, pour in the already made developer. Place a pair of thongs beside the bucket.
9. In the second bucket, pour in the stop bath: one cap full of kodak stop bath solution and fill the rest of the bucket up with water. Place a pair of thongs beside the bucket
10. In the third bucket, pour in the fixer, previously made by Dr. Bordley. Place a pair of thongs beside the bucket.
11. Fill up the fourth bucket with water and leave the tap on so water is continuously flowing throughout the bucket. Place a pair of thongs beside the bucket.
12. When the processing sequence is set up and the emulsion has dried, it is time to expose the paper.
13. Arrange flowers and test strip on the glass screen of the UV apparatus.
14. Place the sheet of paper on top of the flower and test strip arrangement and close the top, fastening it shut.
15. Turn on machine for 1.5-2 seconds and then turn off.
16. Open up the UV apparatus and remove exposed sheet of paper.
17. Place sheet of paper in the developer for 2.5-3 minutes.
18. Remove sheet of paper from developer with thongs and place in stop bath for 30 seconds.
19. Remove sheet of paper from stop bath with thongs and place in fixer for 1.5-2 minutes.
20. Remove sheet of paper from fixer with thongs and place in wash bath for 30 seconds-1 minute.
21. Remove sheet of paper with thongs and place on drying rack at least overnight until dry.
22. Repeat steps 14-21 for each sheet of paper.

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23. Clean up area.

Observations and Data

WHITE PINE PULP

Easy to make. Use the same process as we used in lab. Paper dried well on board and easily detached. Went through photographic process well. Flowers and test strip show up pretty well. The paper stayed intact throughout the bath process. It is my second best set of paper.

WHITE COTTON PULP

Easy to make. Same process as done in lab. Paper dried well on the white board. The paper reacted well to photographic process: flowers and test strip showed up relatively well. The paper did not fall apart during the bath process. These sheets of paper are my third best group of paper.

LIGHT PINK COTTON PULP

This pulp reacted very well to the deckel box procedure and dried very well on the white board. It was easy to remove from the board and remained very strong throughout the bath process. After the paper dried, the flowers and test strip showed up the best on these light pink, cotton sheets of paper, making it my best resulting paper.

DARK PINK/RED COTTON PULP

This pulp worked alright throughout the deckel box procedure, but it did not stick to the white board very well. Throughout the bath process, the paper completely fell apart into pieces and was very hard to move from bath to bath. It dried in pieces in the drying racks. The images of the flowers and the test strip did not show up very well on the paper. This group of paper was by far the worst I made.

BLUE JEAN PULP

This pulp worked okay throughout the paper making process. However, it was not one of my stronger pulps and was quite flimsy during the bath process. The images did not show up too well

on my final sheets of paper and the pages stuck together while drying. These sheets of paper are my fourth best/second worst sheets of paper.

NOTE: I based the ranking of my various types of paper on how well it went through the paper making process, how well it went through the bath process, and how well the images showed up at the end.

• I decided to make three sheets of paper for each type of pulp to measure consistency and in case the paper fell apart
• Shorter exposure time much is much better: about 1.5 seconds (learned during test trial)
• 5 drops of sizing works best (learned during test trial)
• During the test trial, I learned that I need to be more consistent with the application of liquid light because otherwise streaks will appear and/or the emulsion will be uneven
• Smaller, finer flowers are harder to use because they stick to the emulsion and therefore float around in the various baths once exposed
• Using pigments and testing with the colorimeter in my project, like I was originally going to do, was going to be too hard and way too much work for the size of this project, so I altered my project
• The dark pink/red cotton paper falls apart during the bath process and the images do not show up well at all, making it my worst set of paper
• The light pink cotton paper worked well throughout the whole process and therefore it is my best set of paper made
• The second, third and fourth best sheets of paper, respectively, are the white pine pulp, the white cotton pulp and the blue jean pulp
• The dark room was very hard to work in because I could not see anything: I felt like I was

Conclusions

Originally, I was going to make paper with pigments and binders. I was then going to perform liquid light photography on these sheets of paper. Next, I was going to use the colorimeter to test the LAB coordinates for each sheet of paper. Obviously, my project ended up quite different, and I completely eliminated the pigments and binders sections. Had I tried to do all I originally planned to do, I feel I would have been way over my head and would not have had nearly enough time to complete such a project. I am happy with how my project turned out and I am glad I changed my idea.

I have concluded that the best conditions were met with the light pink, cotton pulp. The worst conditions were met with the dark pink/red cotton pulp. The second, third and fourth best sheets of paper, respectively, are the white pine pulp, the white cotton pulp and the blue jean pulp. Relating back to my hypotheses in the introduction, I was wrong in beleiveing that the white cottong pulp would do the best because in the end, it was ranked third best/worst.

When using colored paper, the images showed up the best with the lighter pink cotton paper and completely failed with the dark pink/red paper. Oddly, the white pine pulp worked better with this experiment, unlike with our previous lab in which the white cotton pulp worked the best.

If I had the opportunity to further this project, there are many things I would like to do, because I have learned that many things affect how the photography on a hand made sheet of paper will end up looking. First of all, I would like to test many more colors and types of paper. Secondly, I would like to try various other light sources, such as an enlarger or even sunnlight, instead of the UV apparatus. I think that this would be interesting because the liquid light emulsion is so sensitive and the UV apparatus is so strong that the machine can only be left on for a couple of seconds, whereas we left the UV apparatus on for many minutes with the cyanotype and van dyke prints. I think it would also be interesting to vary the amount of time each sheet of paper spends in the developer, stop bath and fixer. Had I more time to complete such an in depth project with many more variables, I think it would be interesting to investigate varations such as these.

Links

One web site that discusses liquid light photography and that I found helpful is:

www. rockaloid.com

Acknowledgements

Dr. Bordley's help and his book on alternative photography.

The packet inside of the box in which the liquid light photography arrived, which provided much helpful information about the liquid light photographic process.