Hand coated photographic paper!

All of my historic process papers are hand coated.  This means that I paint one and sometimes two different solutions onto the surface of the paper.    The chemicals are sensitive to UV light rays so all of the work must be done either at night or in a darkened room.  Luckily, the chemicals I use can be coated with a light bulb or two turned on!

The photos below show my set-up for coating salted paper (brown prints) and cyanotype paper (blue prints).  The salted paper requires a brushed on coat of distilled water, let it dry for a couple of minutes, a coat of salt solution, let it dry for 30 minutes, and a coat of silver nitrate solution, and let it dry in a dark area for at least two hours.

The cyanotype solution is a fun neon yellow before it is exposed to ultra violet light.  The coating process for cyanotype prints  includes one brushed on coat of distilled water, let it dry for a couple minutes, a puddle pushed coat of cyanotype solution, and let it dry in a dark area for at least 2 hours.  A puddle pusher is a glass rod that is used to move the liquid solution across the paper.

I use a couple of places in my home for hand coating paper.  At night I can work just about anywhere.  During the day, I can do some of the work (cutting paper, distilled water coat and salt solution coat) anywhere,  but the light sensitive solutions require me to hide away in our only closet!  Yes, historic farm houses just do not have closets! 🙂

Hand coating a salted paper with silver nitrate. The silver nitrate is barely visible before it is exposed to light.
This photo shows my puddle pusher or glass rod used to move the light sensitive solution across the surface of my paper.
Cyanotype paper before it is exposed to uv light. An exposed sheet of cyanotype paper turns a beautiful rich blue!

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