I've been doing some prints on some 13x19 Epson Radiant White Watercolor Paper on my 2200. I've observed that it has sizing on one side and it's occurred to me this stuff may be suitable for Pt/Pd printing and other alt processes where a nicely sized paper is a must. Has anyone investigated this prospect?

I've been talking to Dan Burkeholder on email in the last few days and he tells me that he's been experimenting with pigment over platinum processes where he combines hand coated platinum with digitaly applied pigment. Sounds interesting and if it works there is a lot of possibilities for some nice results on some quite lovely ink jet surfaces.

I wondered the same thing and was told the size for ink jet papers contained fixatives for inks and other stuff which would not make the image archival and that probably would have some effect on the pt chemistry. In addition this paper would not hold well under the water, it would be too easy to tear.

Dan Burkholder uses arches platine, or at least he did a few years back. Once he has the image in pt form he passes it through a printer to add the colors. I think his problem has been registration of the color image. Although he said he uses archival pigments, I am not sure how archival these prints would be compared to his "normal" prints. I have a couple of his prints and have had them for years, in constant dispaly and they lood like the first day I got them, I dont know how his color platinum prints would fare under these conditions.

If I were going to get involved with truly archival color print production, I would revisit the dye transfer process. Or if one could get Atelier Fresson to get involved, their process is the epitome of color archival processes. They use a process that was founded by the present operator's grandfather and use color pigments instead of dyes. However their process is closely held and they limit their production to a few thousand prints per year.

It would seem to me that any attempt to overlay a pt-pd print with color would be limited by the archival properties of the color overlay. I wonder how a degraded color overlay would appear on an archival pt-pd image?

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Greetings,

I tried a Van Dyke print on Hanamule (sp?) Ink Jet paper, but do not recommend it. Even though the paper is sized, it soaked up 2 to 3 times the chemistry of watercolor papers. There was a pronounced color shift towards sepia and low Dmax.

Regards, Pete

The knock on many otherwise fine papers for platinum is the high pH of the paper since the big 'archival' push about 15 years ago. The platinum metal solution is very acidic, and the carbonate buffers in a lot of papers just increase the pH and make the prints look crappy. A lot of printers get around that by pre-treating the paper either with a 1-2% solution of oxalic acid, or through double coating the paper. Both of these methods serve to make the paper acidic, which is anathema to most paper companies nowadays. Obviously, the oxalic acid trick is the cheapest trick, and would be the first thing I would try.

As far as Dan's 'pigment over platinum' technique, he explained to me that he uses his normal platinum papers (platine mostly) and prints the color layer FIRST with the Epson 2200 pigment inks. Since these inks are waterproof, he can then go ahead and coat the paper with platinum solution, register the negative on top of the color image, and then print the platinum image. Very clever! The prints he produces are very interesting and unique. Dan is an incredible resource for digital techniques and if you ever get the chance to take one of his workshops, definitely try to enroll. Just take a BIG pad of paper, a pencil and get ready to 'sip water through a fire-hose' - he literally deluges you with great photoshop tips that make you want to smack your forehead and say 'why didn't I think of that?'

Oops. This is sorta digital isn't it? Nevermind.