Yesterday I went to this year's Artomatic site to pick my wall space. I was in the first round of site selection, so I got to pick a prime location in the show. I'll be right off the elevator banks on the 8th floor.

For those who have never heard of Artomatic, it is this (semi-) annual show here in Washington DC that is run by artists for artists. It moves around each time because the show is so big, and there is a dearth of exhibition space in DC. The show got its name from the...

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well, I finally made my wet plate holder. I have a home-brew holder made from an 8x10 film holder- I got out the Dremel and cut the hole in the septum for the plate, glued in my corner supports, and made a pressure plate that can go between the darkslide and the aluminum plate with the emulsion on it.

If you are endeavoring to make your own out of an old film holder, here's a hot tip- DON'T use a really old film holder - it may have a double septum of thin sheets of aluminum, which...

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Slide #32 - The Larch.

But I digress.

Today I assembled the plastic box for my smaller silver bath. All the pieces had been cut to proper size but one, the bottom, when I ordered it. Fortunately, I had a fair bit of leftover from the whole sheet, so I was able to cut a replacement. Don't let the acrylic salespeople fool you- cutting to size is not as simple as scoring a line and snapping off the excess. Fortunately, I had bought a saw attachment for my Dremel motor...

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I went to look at a rental studio in an artists' collective today. They had a space available that was almost 400 sq. ft., for $400 a month. I was quite tempted, until I saw the space itself. It was a very large corner of an open room, with a common hallway running through the space. No personal security. Huge minus when I want to keep my studio camera and my lighting gear in the studio. Another minus- they got their panties in a bunch when I started talking about doing wet-plate collodion - as...

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Well, all my chemistry has arrived now. I got my ether, my collodion, my metal salts, and my Everclear. I'm still waiting on the bits of plastic to make my silver bath, so I decided to mix my first batch of collodion. I was a bit worried after last night's exercise in torture making my varnish, but all went extremely well today. Now of course, my entire basement smells faintly of ether (and a little like my varnish as well). I'll be ready to coat a plate as soon as my silver bath parts arrive, and...

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