I spent almost all day today (my day starts early) making prints for my new book. I guess I should say, making prototypes for it. I’m in the process of figuring out what process I want to use, what format (size of book) I want to make and how I want to present the text.
These examples are getting very close to what I’m looking for. I left the old-school Kallitypes today and opted to work in a pure palladium printing process. I heated my potassium oxalate to 190F (88C) and got a very beautiful warm tone on the Revere Platinum paper.
The text plates are wet collodion Half Plate images. I processed them the same way. I’m very happy with the look and feel of the text. I mentioned in my last post I was going for a “weathered leather” look. I think I got it. I really like the artifacts and the raw look of them.
Every day, I get closer to getting a workflow that I can make several books with. Once I decide on everything, I’ll lock it down and only work in the selected printing process for the coming year or two. It will help me with making the rest of the work too. How to expose the negatives, how to process them, etc. All are very valuable for consistency. I don’t want contamination or confusion in chemistry. That’s why I’m working toward getting this figured out so I can keep making negatives for the project. It’s a process and I really enjoy the journey. It will take me several months to make one book. It’ll be a slow and demanding process for sure. I’m very grateful to be able to do this work. It’s unique and interesting (at least to me). I think history will be kind to me for doing it. I hope you can appreciate it too.
Plate #105 - Aspens. Palladiotype prints. Palladium is a wonderful (noble) metal!