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!

Propane Bottles Back on the Darkroom Trailer, Fanny

I replaced the stolen propane bottles and replaced the damaged propane trailer stand. I locked everything up with a 15 foot chain and lock. The whole setup cost over $350! Hope it is not all stolen again. I need the tanks to run the furnace to shoot in the winter weather of Canada.

Chained together and to the trailer.

Large Coleman Cooler for $25 CAD

Picked up a large 2nd hand Coleman Cooler for $25 yesterday. I will try using it to safely carry chemicals, vinegar and alcohol in the darkroom trailer. Will play with it today, try to set it up to be functional in the space. 

Note* This cooler compliments the super large one I got from work for free (used to carry 4-5 litre bottles  of silver!).

Will store all my liquids, vinegar, distilled water and alchohal in the new cooler.

Scavenge-Repair Day!

AMBROTOS KANATA is a very expensive project. Photographing Canada on glass cost lots of doe!! To help save on costs I have to work as cheaply as I can manage without sacrificing the quality of the Ambrotypes.

Today was a day where I did some scavenging and some repairs. On the scavenging side of things I took a bunch of broken glass and recut it to smaller usable sizes. So broken 11x14,14x14 and 24x24 inch glass became 4x5, 5x7 and 8x10 inch plates. On the repair thingy, I fixed (broken bottom) and painted a damaged 20x24 inch silver tank and also repaired a broken 4x5/8x10 inch drying rack.

I should be able to reuse everything this coming shooting season. Money saved!

Note* The propane tank trailer attachment assembly arrives tomorrow. Hopefully I can get everything up and running soon. If I do, I will be one step closer to making Ambrotypes.!! I am excited to get back at!! Creating beauty will be a relief (no bad dreams) after the recent emotionally difficult images UNDER THE FREEWAY.

Drying Rack

New Plates

Repaired 20x24 Silver Tank Box