Smoother paper for cyanotype?

[reellis67]

FYI, I just got an email from Sam Wang stating that the new paper is not the same as the old stuff - I must have gotten some of the old because this stuff is great. Sam told me that the newer is just about worthless for any type of alt process work so I'm headed back to the shop where this came from to get the rest. They were low on stock and if it changed, I want to stock up.

- Randy

[reellis67]

Although it is not the only paper I use, I commonly print VDB, cyanotype, salt and platinum/palladium prints on 100%cotton stationery. It clears beautifully, and rather quickly.

It is fragile, but if handled carefully does an excellent job. Usual cost is about $8 for a box of 50 sheets.

How does it do as far as tonal range and details? The big draw for me on the Bristol is the great range of values and the sharpness of the print. I mean it's like night and day from my other papers.

- Randy

[Jim Noel]

If the papers do not give me the tonal range I like I stop using it immediately. People who view these prints agree about the long tonal range.

[reellis67]

Agreed! I've gone through various papers looking for something like this so I've got lots of paper for other purposes laying around. Sometimes I think I need to take up watercolor just to put this stuff to better use. Thanks for the tip - I'll give it a shot.

- Randy

[Donald Qualls]

FYI, I just got an email from Sam Wang stating that the new paper is not the same as the old stuff - I must have gotten some of the old because this stuff is great. Sam told me that the newer is just about worthless for any type of alt process work so I'm headed back to the shop where this came from to get the rest. They were low on stock and if it changed, I want to stock up.

This is in reference to the Strathmore Bristol?! I just bought mine, from stock at the local Hobby Lobby, about two weeks ago. Their stock level was very low (I got the 9x12 inch in a pad), only a couple pads on the shelf; it's probably a slowish mover for them... :o

[Jersey Vic]

I and some local acquaintances found that Rising's Stonehenge paper is an excellent all around alt process paper, great for platinum printing and cyanotypy, unimaginably cheap and readily available. Comes in WHITE!(nice), neutral(very nice) as well as grey, fawn(?) and cream. I find it everywhere in various sheet sizes and pads.

http://art-supplies.misterart.com/st...enge-Paper.htm

[reellis67]

This is in reference to the Strathmore Bristol?! I just bought mine, from stock at the local Hobby Lobby, about two weeks ago. Their stock level was very low (I got the 9x12 inch in a pad), only a couple pads on the shelf; it's probably a slowish mover for them... :o

Yes, unfortunately it is. I posted a questions about using Strathmore Bristol paper with cyanotypes on the alt-process list and Sam responded with that info about the new batches. My shop was low as well, and they are not exactly the main place for art supplies it seems, so I figured that what I got was old, because this stuff is superb. I've accidentaly deleted his response (doh!) but it should appear somewhere on the alt-process-l archive site (http://www.usask.ca/lists/alt-photo-process/).

- Randy

[Donald Qualls]

Argh. Find something good, and it's gone.

I guess I'm going to have to find a real paper store in the Greensboro/Winston-Salem area and get some of the Cranes 90# cover Buggy's been using.

[Whiteymorange]

I've gone over this in another thread here but I'll repeat the main points. The important things you have to think about, Donald, are the rag content (perhaps you meant this when you said "fiber reinforced") and the sizing. Any mostly rag paper will hold up well in wet processes. Think about what happened the last time you washed a dollar bill (100% rag) in your pants pocket as opposed when the same thing happened to a sheet of note paper.

Surfaces of art papers are rather vaguely catagorized by the roughness or "tooth" they present to the artist. I suspect what you are calling cold pressed is actually what a painter would call rough or at lest soft pressed. True cold press is more like sketching pad texture - meant for pencil. Mold-made paper is dried in a large pile between felt pads. Cold press is dried in conatct with metal, Hot press is dried in contact with a hot plate, like a ferrotype plate once used to get glossy prints.

Sizing is what is added to a paper to give it "snap" and to control absorption. Heavily sized paper is meant for ink. Unsized or waterleaf paper is very, very absorbant and is most useful for certain intaglio printmaking, embossing and some types of brush work. Intaglio printmakers (etchers, engravers, woodblock artists, etc.) use all the various papers and adjust their methods to the surface and sizing of the paper.

Stonehenge paper is very nice - a bit softer than most cold press paper and very sturdy. Lenox is also very nice to work with, as is Domestic etch. Rives BFK is my all time favorite for etching but many people like Arches Cover or the lighter Copperplate, a bit harder paper. Fabriano Artistico is another really nice paper. It comes in bright white and in cold press or soft press.

Many of the watercolor papers, in cold press and hot press (somewhat hard and very smooth) can be had in blocks, glued on all four sides with a small place to insert a knife when you wish to separate the top sheet. This way the paper will not buckle at all when coating. Blocks can also be had in smaller sizes. The price range you indicated will get you darn near anything but very specialized papers.

A great source of paper is Dick Blick. They deliver and ship very quickly. Phone ordering will allow you to make sure that what you want is in stock.

[Donald Qualls]

Whitey, all this is great information (and I did read it on the other thread, also).

Unfortunately, it doesn't resolve my main issue with buying paper remotely: I have to buy a bunch of it to dilute the shipping cost, and then if I don't like it or it doesn't work for the process I'm working on, I've got a bunch of waste that's too rough and stiff to make good toilet paper.

BTW, the "fiber reinforced" I was talking about (wherever that was) is something that's done for cheap padded watercolor papers so they don't have to be mounted before painting -- there's a layer of fiberglass mesh embedded in the paper to control swell and shrinkage and keep the paper from curling as it dries. When I learned watercolor in high school (in 1977 or 1978), we had to wet the paper and then tape it to a board with water-activated brown paper tape, and let it dry, before we could paint -- which is kind of limiting if you want to do watercolor sketching in the field. The fiberglass reinforced paper doesn't require that.

I recall hearing about paper in blocks when I was in high school, but haven't ever used it; not sure I've seen it.

My problem is coming down to this: I'm a photographer. I didn't think I'd need to become a paper expert to be able to make 19th century process prints. And I'm very reluctant to buy a bunch of paper that a) I can't handle before buying, and b) I don't know for certain will work for what I need (lots of papers, seemingly those with buffering or the wrong kind of sizing, develop a brown fog when coated with silver nitrate bearing solutions like salt print or VDB).

Just the Dick Blick home page you linked is depressing -- there are 20+ different kinds of paper on there, and I'm not even sure what kind I want, much less how to tell, over the web, if the paper I select will fog when I try to coat it.

As for "cold" vs. "hot" press -- I'm just repeating what's on the cover sheet of the pad...