Has anyone printed van dyke or other alt. prints on parchment? I almost bought a pad the other day but when I asked the sales person how it would hold up in water for potentially up to an hour she said it would probably fall apart.

I just wanted to try it out to see how it looked but it would be useless to try if the paper breaks down in water.

Any thoughts or experience on this?

Thanks

No, most people use some sort of cotton rag paper or watercolor paper for their alt process prints.

Alan Greene recommends architectural drafting vellums ("...a chief advantage being their suburb wet-strength..."), such as national Printfast and Clearprint vellums, for wet-paper in-camera negatives. See his Primitive Photography book. Don't know how such would work for alterative printmaking.

K.

Since real parchment is animal skin, the name "parchment" when applied to paper speaks only to the look and feel, not the quality and strength. I would suggest you stick to paper that is at least 50% rag, not sulphite pulp. Paper made for any of the traditional printmaking processes- etching, engraving, etc. or for watercolor work will hold up well. The finish of the paper (plate, cold press, hot press, laid, rough, etc.) the color and the weight will dictate how it performs for your process, and there are many, many variations there. Try Dick Blick or Daniel Smith for a good selection.

Clearprint Vellum works well with Kallitype,but requires very gentle handling.

A few years ago, I played around with printing platinum on vellum. It worked reasonably well. If I remember correctly, it required less emulsion than water color paper. The effect was interesting when put on a light box.

I remember reading about some platinum printer who would buy old parchment--normally gregorian chants and print photographs of cathedrals directly on the old parchment. Sorry, I don't remember the reference.

Jed Devine did a lot of experimenting on different vellums and other translucent papers. You might google him and see what you can find.

Thanks all.