Getting Down to Brass Tax and UPDATE

     Old collodion is nearly gone and it is time to prepare some new mixtures for my 8x10 and 5x7 cameras. I have ran some numbers and figured out the prices for three formulas. I found these formulas online and provided in forums. Formulas I have chosen to try and see: old workhorse, poor boy, and Quinn Jacobson's formula. I am not sure which one I will ultimately select, but my budget is allowing me to try a sample of all three. I am glad most of the chemicals overlap. I hope to select a formula that works best for me... in the end they may all perceive to be the same to my eye... again purely experimental for myself. I have always wanted to mix my own chemicals and with a good knowledge in the collodion practice my troubleshooting will hopefully help if problems arise using these chemicals. I have also found formulas for positive developer provided by Quinn Jacobson's on the forum collodion.com .
   I have also chosen to purchase my chemicals from Bostick and Sullivan. Art Craft in New York offers the same exact prices, but they do not sell ether and offer larger quantities for some items I only need a little of. I buy all my silver nitrate from Art Craft because they have the best deal! I also already have a grain alcohol I purchased in T. J. In addition, distilled water I get by the gallon for about a dollar and I buy my denatured alcohol at Big Lots for a buck as well.

I am currently inquiring as to the shelf life of Quinn's formula and Poor Boy.

I have not included the annoying shipping and taxes.

Chemical price list for everything.

Developers

Glass Cleaner

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UPDATE

    So I slept on the idea of giving all three chemicals a try and my head was just spinning on which to choose. In the end I am going to go with Quinn's mixture which is actually a quick clear formula from M.H. Ellis' book "The Ambrotype and Photographic Instructor" published in 1856. I am going to give this formula a go. So I am going to place my order with Bostick and Sullivan including chemicals to make my own positive developer and glass cleaner.

    Here is a screen shot of my order. This should provide for 600ml of glass cleaner, a lot of developer, and about 1,140 ml of collodion. So I am completely set and ready to go for awhile! I also have my silver baths cleaned, sunned, and measured. 

   While researching last night I also found information on bringing back old collodion using acetone. From what I have seen or read it works for the majority of the time, but when it comes to varnishing there can be some issues. I suppose it depends on your varnish? But roughly to clear old collodion from dark red to a nice yellow would be .5ml to 75ml or 20 drops of acetone to 150ml of collodion, or 2ml acetone to 1000ml of collodion. From the responses last night those are ratios people came up with. I am going to try 20 drops to 150ml of collodion and see how long it takes to clear.

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SUCCESS WITH HOLGA

     My plates are still drying so I had to take digital snap shots. Today was a great success with the plates and I can not wait to continue with them tomorrow. I wanted to do some portraits today, but no one is home. Tomorrow should be interesting to try it out on my family. I have to cut a lot of glass tonight!

Inside my messy darkbox

Success! There is fogging on the right because the back was not closed all the way on the camera.

Drying the plates.

Second plate of the day depicting roses from the garden.

Last plate of the day. Glass was not all the way clean and it looks overexposed.

My first happy image with the Holga! Not worth varnishing, but a stepping stone.

Ikea Trip

  
    On Tuesday night John and I went to a HVAC lecture at the Edison Education Center in Irwindale. We were already in Diamond Bar so figured we would check it out. The food was amazing!! I swear this lecture was for free, but it was like fine dinning! Anywho we stayed for the lecture and it was a great review. On our way back home I asked John if we could swing into IKEA. On Alex Timmermans blog he mentioned a super cheap plate rack he had found at IKEA. I ran to the kitchen knick knack aisle and there it was for a whole $5.99 my perfect plate rack! Also, for $3.99 each I purchased my new silver nitrate bottles.
    Today I will be filtering my silver bath and working on more Holga plates. Hope it goes well.

Holga Meet Collodion

     Had this idea for a long time and today I finally got to do it! After installing a blower motor this morning in Diamond Bar John dropped me off for my official hobby day! Hobby days are those fully dedicated to wet plate collodion or any other fun activity. Tomorrow John shall participate in the festivities with his 66 impala project. Anyways, today I took my Holga Stereo camera off the shelf and was able to successfully shoot 5 plates. The plates are not the best, but the camera is fully functional. I believe I worked out all the kinks and should be ready to produce plates tomorrow. The rest of the week is pretty much dedicated to collodion because tomorrow I will be shooting my Holga camera all day, Friday I will be at my grandma's house after the funeral shooting all my relatives, and then Saturday and Sunday I will be at the Folk Tree.
 
For those who want to beef up their Holga and adapt it to collodion here is how:

I am using 1/16th of an inch clear glass. I know the tin I use is super thin and would also work in the Holga.

I am using John's dremel at speed 2 to eat away at these annoying notches. With these notches gone I can easily close the camera.

Notice the tip on the dremel. This tip totally ate through the plastic super easy.

Not the neatest job. Yes, I was in a hurry because I was so excited.

Here are the plates I cut myself with the new strip cutter I got from Stained Glass Supply in Eagle Rock. The plate size is 5.25x2.5 inches.

Work area. The strip cutter is on the left and super handy! Makes my work flow much faster.

Cleaning plates and there is my handy dandy timer. I purchased this timer from Big Lots about 8 months ago and it is still going strong.

I keep my chemicals in an ice chest, which is then stored in my dark box. The ice chest does absorb most of the smell, but if I leave my dark box in my car for to long the whole care is consumed in collodion stench... at least that is what my father tells me, (I can not smell it anymore).

My dark box. Next month my dad and I are going to build a new one. This was the prototype and was created in a hurry. I had about a week to construct one before Ken Merfeld's class began last year.

The first plate!  A complete success! Not the best image, but hey it worked!

Here is the inside of the camera. The plate sits on the natural border of the Holga. Each plate is easily put into the camera and slowly taken out. Since the camera is made of plastic there are no silver stains, or annoying stickiness.

The back of the camera.

     I assumed the red film provided by Holga would be strong enough to block leaking from the outside of the camera. I was very wrong! On my first couple of plates You can see the window allowed for light leaks. Make sure to cover that up with tape.

You can see it clearly in this image the fogged circle. Also you can see the Holga has some sharpness to it. The fountain in my backyard looks even more menacing. You will also notice a big collodion streak on the plate. The collodion was not sticking to the plate and the film was coming off. To keep the image stable I took it out of the fix so it could hurry and dry so I could get a picture.

One of the plates of my fence. I apologize for the artifacts on the plate. My silver bath needs filtering.

Close up of the vine on my fence.

Another close-up. Again these are test images and I can not wait to experiment with it more. I hope to create some short of chart indicating how I can get each image to be sharp and perfect exposures.

Cases, Burnishing, Colorization Oh My!

     After recovering from last week I am back up and running. This weekend my father and I went to my favorite glass shop in all the world  Stained Glass Supplies in Eagle Rock. The nicest people and the coolest products! Love the guy there who cuts the glass. He is super friendly and always helps his customers. My dad was in love with all the crazy glass and I was able to pick up four sheet of glass I can not wait to use... more on that later.
    Before I left Pasadena I was able to pick up some supplies at Blick. I purchased some colored pastels and book binding paper. After Blick I headed out to Los Nietos to visit my grandparents home. I was able to get two plates done of some of his tools. On Friday after my grandmother's services I will be photographing my crazy family. It was nice to see my aunts and my uncles. I do not get to see them all that often, but they look the same to me! Every year we have a family reunion and I remember being little and timid in front of them because they were so loud and always hugging and kissing the kids. Now I have learned how lucky I am to have that kind of a family.

Work table. Have everything planned out and experimenting.

                                      

The leather book binding paper I purchased at Blick.

Frustrated. I hated the super bright red paper. 

                                          
         You can see the marks from the cotton on the plate. I suppose I pressed to hard. I am still trying to figure out this burnishing, but to me it makes a huge difference and worth sacrificing some plates. My grandfather was a carpenter and here is one of his many screw drivers.

     Here is an example of one of my grandpa's scissors. You can see the over rubbing again from this angle, in addition you may be able to see some of the gold pastel on the blades. I am not to happy with how the plates come out, but practice makes perfect.

Looks like petrified wood to me!

Love the greens! I know these would be perfect with a gold trim.

These glass pieces are complete perfection! I can not wait to use these as mattes in my ambrotype cases. I have seen some vintage daguerreotype frames who utilized a concept similar. So I am spinning my own ideas for cases and frames and can not wait to finish these bad boys! Super excited!

The Box and my Booth at the Folk Tree Jan. 21st-22nd

     Things are finally coming together! I know this is certainly a learning stage and will be making these boxes for many years to come. So here is my first almost completed box. It needs the glass and the plate needs to be varnished, but other than that I did it! I know it is not history correct, but I like this open shadow box effect and I can hang it on a wall.
    Also, John and I went this morning to an estate sale. Found some awesome vintage goodies including an original never used 1940s "Exposure Meter" and two sets of 1948 Pin Up playing cards never opened. A very successful morning of treasure hunting. I also got these two wood inserts for $1.00

Before Shots of the Wood

  Painted the smaller frame with a Montana Chrome spray paint. Still needs two more coats.

I made the outer wood frame this morning and here is the oval frame painted with the Montana brand spray paint in Copper. I plan to use this case to frame my first 8x10 ambrotype.

    Back to the smaller case I first made. You can see the red is much brighter. This is before I added the black velvet piece inside to hide the messy paper fold.

Here it is! My first case! The plate needs to be varnished and I need to put clear glass inside to protect it. But otherwise a long a tedious experience. I know the rest of the cases will go much smoother!

Also make sure you check out the FOLK TREE in Pasadena tomorrow from 2-6pm I will have a booth and be showing my work and explaining the process. Due to weather the portraits will be taken next week. Thank you and see you there: 217 S. Fair Oaks Pasadena 626.795.8733

Silver Tank Cont.

     Just ordered the extra silver from Artcraft Chemicals and I am ready for next weeks VINTAGE VALENTINE portraits at the Folk Tree. Before I processed my payment I measured how much water my tank can hold. I added a piece of 7.5x9.5 glass along with the plate "dunker". I do not know the official word used for the spatula shaped acrylic holder that allows you to pull the plate out and in to the bath.

      Anways, since both of those have weight it means less silver and less distilled water needed. In the end I calculated my tank to hold 1200mL of water. This much water will cover the plate perfectly without spilling. In addition, my dunker was from my original smaller tank. Since S & W Plastics would charge me and arm and a leg to make another one I have come up with a simple solution.

        Here is what I mean by my plate dunker. It is to short for my new silver tank and I have to go back to S&W tomorrow to have a 1.5x4.5 inch piece of 1/8th acrylic cut to add more length. It should cost me under $8.00. A new whole plate silver bath tank costs over $100, not including shipping. So far I am in under $20.00.