Nice Trays

Picked up some mini bus pan trays that will work well with the 11x14 plates. 3 for $4.50 each from Goodwill. Thrifts shops provide most of my working tools in the trailer. Gotta love that, cheap and well made.

Honey Works Well

I did further tests using honey on 11x14 Ambrotypes. Mixed a 2 part honey to 1 part water solution. Let the first plate sit for 1 day before washing, the second sit around 1 week. No issues with either plate post 2 hour wash.

I think I got something good here! This should revolutionize my remote shooting in the trailer. Now I can depart a location much sooner and wash the plates at my leisure when I have time and a good supply of water.

Note * I am finding/making more and more storage trays, that I can use to place the honey covered plates in before they are washed. 

Things are looking good!

300mm versus 360mm Schneider Xenar Lens Camera Differences

Trying to figure out which Xenar lens will be better for my 11x14, 14x14 inch tight head ambrotype portraits. Should it be the 360mm or the 300mm?

I like the less bellows extension and the more distortion from the 300!! Leaning that way.

360mm bellows extension and head

300mm bellows extension and head

Practicing Headshots

  

Looking to start doing wet plate headshots this year. Will be making shallow focus tight heads onto 11x14 and 14x14 inch clear glass plates, ambrotypes. Experimenting today with my 360mm Schneider Xenar lens. Am using my thrift shop hair model head to focus on.

Note* I have a couple of heads planned for the spring. My friend Larry and my cousin Frankie (in cosplay makeup).

Acetone Test?

I added Walmart Acetone to my old Collodion to see if I could revitalize it a bit. Online they recommend 1 drop of Acetone to 100ml of old mixed collodion. I gave a 1000ml lab bottle of collodion around 15 small drops.

We shall see what happens? It is supposed to add a bit of speed and refresh the collodion.

Sunflower Ambrotype

 Did up an 11x14 inch Ambrotype for the first time in a long time tonight. Was using old collodion and a vinegar developer with sugar.

1000 ml White Vinegar

30 gr iron

40 ml bio ethanal (my version of alcohol)

40 gr white sugar

6+ minutes in the Silver Bath

I gave 7 hits with the Blackline flash at 2400 watts, one head. The lens was my Russian copy at f32

Diptych and Triptych Design

Was thinking of a possible design for my Ambros in dip and triptychs, using hinges. The idea is to able to mount 11x14 inch and 14x14 inches plates in 2s and 3s this way. I would hand-make the frames.

Possibles?!

Ideas for Framing Ambros for Exhibition

Been thinking on framing for the possible 2008-09 AMBROTOS KANATA exhibition. 

How to proceed? Diptych’s? Ambrotype sizes? Types of frames? How many?

Here is a 14x14 inch ambrotype in a hand made pine frame. The black substrate behind the clear glass ambro is only a test 11x14 inch metal plate.

I currently thinking of going with 11x14, 14x14, 20x24 and 24x24 ambrotypes in large hand made wooden frames.

This diptych frame looks pretty good.

Possible AMBROTOS KANATA Exhibition on Vancouver Island

 

The gallery is the "Comox Valley Art Gallery",  Courtenay, Vancouver Island BC, Canada. It is a smaller gallery but quite nice, a lovely space.

Courtenay BC

 

The exhibition IF it happens, will allow the following:   

- I will allow for the work to be exhibited, possibly for the first time.  Letting me tell a         important story about Canada in glass. 

- The exhibition will allow more trips to Vancouver Island to make more and more ambrotypes. 

-It will push me to work harder and harder on the project. If I have a space, I want to fill with   beautiful and powerful work. The exhibition IF it happens would not be until 2028 or 2029.

The gallery exterior

 

Interior gallery space

Population Canada

 

Sunning and Filtering Silver Nitrate

I am sunning and filtering my silver nitrate solutions. I have somewhere between 13 and 14 litres of the stuff. 

Picked up a second daylight light source a week back. Got it delivered to the house for $30 CAD(2nd hand). I like my first daylight source for this type of sunning. Hopefully the second light will work as well.

Sunning this way has benefits There is no need to filter while sunning for bugs, no need to worry about about the valuable  silver being outside. I can simply place the glass lab bottles next to the lights in one of my darkrooms (house-trailer) and forget about it. I usually sun for 3 or 4 days. The glass bottles let me see my silver clearly, allowing me to judge its quality. The 3-4 days of sunning  allows for clearing of excess alcohol without needing to transfer the silver to a wider mouth glass container. 

I changed my filtering material from cotton to coffee filters. And moved from 3 funnels to 2. The idea is to speed up my filtering. This is especially important when I am in the field and have time limits on how long I can stay at a location. 

Sunning the silver with my 2 (1 new) daylight light lamps

Filtering silver through to funnels with coffee filters

Top coffee filter and filtration. The black is the residue sunned out of the silver nitrate solution.

Honey Testing Conclusions

Honey testing conclusions.  After several days of making 11x14 ambrotypes  then test storing them before the final wash using various dilutions of honey. I think I have found my answers.

When I mixed my honey 2 and 3 parts water to 1 part honey the plates dried out. The honey content was too low. When I tried to do a final wash on the plates the collodion emulsion separated from the glass and was destroyed.

I upped the honey content in my dilution. First I did 1-1 honey and water then I did 2 parts honey to 1 part water. That last dilution seemed to work well. After 3 days drying, the plate was wet at first then sort of a glossy dry took over. After soaking in water for over 24 hours the emulsion did not lift off. I followed with a 2 hour wash and dry and the plates seemed normal (see photo). It was as if i never covered it with honey.

I will use a  2 parts honey to 1 part water dilution. If I mix 300 ml honey with 150mls of water that should make enough COATER to cover 3-4 11x14 inch plates. 

I believe  honey will be cheaper for me than glycogen to buy and use. Also kinda like the old school part of it. A bit messy to use but this should work. 

Note* An online Facebook friend told me honey cost $20 USD a litre in the UK. $7.33 CAD in Canada and $20 USD in thee UK. Wow,  that is a substantial difference. His price makes no honey buying sense. For him glycerine and honey are about the same cost, so you got to go with thee easier to use glycerine. For me thou the cheaper Alberta price for honey, makes it the more economic choice. Honey will be especially beneficial when I am working with very large plates (24x24 inches and larger) in far of locations where I must do the final wash a day or 2 later at another location. Honey could be a project saver for me.

The dried platee after honey coating and final wash

Glycerine

The cheapest price I can find honey hear, $733 CAD per litre

Added an Aperture To My Smaller Project Lens For the 14x14 Inch Camera

 

Video: Back in the Trailer, Making Ambrotypes

 Back in the wetplate trailer!! 2c outside, 10c in the trailer. Also testing the honey mix to keep the plates wet. 1/1, 1/2 and 1/3 honey to water.

Ambrotype Photo Making Setup

Got this little top bar (Tripod was mine) for $30 CAD tonight, online via Amazon these things run $83 new and $39 used with a $27 shipping cost to Edmonton. I played around a bit with it tonight and it should work well with a iPhone or a small digi camera. I will use this set up to photography my 11x14 inch to 24x24 inch Ambrotype plates. I just need to place the glass under the camera, light it and photograph away. I will use this set up to prepare photo submissions,  creating photos for the webpages etc. 

 

Trailer Upgrades!

Should be able to make some Ambrotypes next week! 

Have done many wet plate darkroom trailer improvements. Added and secured 2-30lb propane tanks, I hope they will not be stolen again. Added a large second hand cooler ($25) for all my liquid chemicals (Vinegars, Alcohol and Distilled Water) and finished the battery lid which allows more efficient storage of my trays.

New table top storage space on top of the battery lid/cover!

New second hand Coleman cooler for liquid chemistry

My new locked down propane tanks!