I’m ready to move to my goal of making this work on glass (prints from negatives). These are Rawlins Oil prints, but they’re on 8” x 10” (20,3 x 25,4 cm) glass plates. The negatives are Whole Plate and look wonderful matched to that format for printing. They will end up in 11” x 14” (28 x 35 cm) mats.
I’ve found a way to pour gelatin onto the glass with thick magnets and my level pouring board. It works really well. I was happy to find the right magnets! That took a while. The glass is 2mm thick, so the average magnetic strip stuff does not work. I have a great system down now that allows me to pour about 5 plates in an hour. That’s pretty good.
Tomorrow, I’ll sensitize the gelatin and ink up these three plates. My end goal is to have the work I make for this project all printed on glass. It’s super beautiful and kind of transcends photography - almost multimedia in a way. I like that. I have an idea for framing this work that should be interesting too.
These will be printed from wet and dry collodion negatives, and I’ll eventually find a way to ink them in a subdued color that works.
Not an easy thing to do, getting the gelatin to the right temperature and then having it stay in your cordoned off areas with magnets.
You can see how thick the gelatin is on these glass plates.
Chemistry anyone? If this isn’t enough, there’s more in the darkroom!