Comments on: Today is a very quiet day http://www.metamorphosism.com/?p=5006 We of course all understand it, being intellectuals. Thu, 05 Jun 2025 17:47:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0 By: mig http://www.metamorphosism.com/?p=5006&cpage=1#comment-11288 Mon, 25 May 2015 18:09:18 +0000 http://www.metamorphosism.com/?p=5006#comment-11288 Well.
I varnished the two plates above. The first one went okay – I still have to get the hang of pouring the varnish smoothly. Also, when I held the varnished plate over the alcohol lamp, it went FLOOF!!! and burst into flame and I blew it out and it had an irregular matte finish from that and I revarnished it and it looked better, although imperfect. Unfortunately, things went worse with the second plate – I heated it, poured the varnish and the collodion dissolved and the entire image ran off the plate.

This happens sometimes. It has happened to me a couple times. I suspect it has something to do with the collodion – the collodion I used for the second plate was older, which might have something to do with it – the alcohol in the varnish apparently dissolved the collodion base.

Or something. This, I guess, is why we scan the plate before varnishing…

]]> By: mig http://www.metamorphosism.com/?p=5006&cpage=1#comment-11287 Mon, 25 May 2015 15:37:49 +0000 http://www.metamorphosism.com/?p=5006#comment-11287 From what I have been able to find out after looking for a few minutes, older collodion gets slower and more contrasty, which some people prefer. Some people like to mix old and new collodion.

(I have also heard that mixing new and old (and/or used) developer can increase contrast, as can adding a few drops of silver nitrate solution (for example, letting a few drops drip from the plate into the developer when plate is first removed from the silver bath) – I have been trying this but am not sure yet what causes what. I like some of the results I have been getting – more contrast, but also messier looking, with a lot of texture, which can be good or bad depending on what you want and how it turns out. I generally like it.)

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