>> >Also, what do you use for 36" by 40" (or is that really 40 feet?)
>> >negatives?
>>
>> Uh, would you believe drafting vellums that I put through an oversized
>> Xerox machine?
>
>Some of us only dream about an oversided zerox machine -- but is that
>continuous tone? Or more a random dot effect?
I use the machine at my local Kinko's. The one in San Mateo, Ca. is within
reach of the paying customers and costs about $2.50 a copy. It's primarily
intended for engineering blueprints, so the actual reproduction of middle
tone is not great or worse. They have an oversize ink jet printer there as
well, but the cost of prints is prohibitive and the file size would squash
my computer, so that combination is on a wish list for the future. I should
say that I make multiple exposures to build the image up, and finish the
piece by drawing on it with conte crayon, colored pencil and what not.
>And do you put a cover glass of some kind over it? If that's not 40 feet
>I guess you could find a piece of glass that size -- but is contact OK?
>(If it's window glass, do you think it could have UV inhibitors in it
>making it so slow?)
I stretched some clear plastic drop cloth (also known as "visqueen" though
I don't know why) in a 4'x4' window screen frame and use that to hold the
"negative" in place. I did this to get around the UV inhibition problem and
it did work. I think that part of the fault lies in the vellum and hope to
find an appropriate mylar to use that won't choke the Xerox machine. I also
am wondering if the combination of emulsion and ground that it's put on
might contribute to the long times. I'm reminded that you recently
commented that different papers have a marked effect on cyanotypes. That
remark was interesting to me, though I'm not sure if it has a bearing on my
exposure problem. Then again, it could just be my inability to wiegh things
properly.
The best part of all this mickey-mousing that I've described is that it has
allowed me to side step (for the moment, at least) dealing with a darkroom
or dedicating space that I don't yet have to one. Not that I don't want to;
it's just that the kids want to put an HO scale train set into any new
space we get.
>
>Thanks again,
>
>Judy
You're welcome.
Patrick
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Patrick Hilferty
Belmont, CA 94002
E-Mail: philferty@earthlink.net
Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~philferty/
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