About These Prints

What makes these prints so special? They are handcrafted by the artists using archival and or historically sound methods. Some prints are multi-layered and/or unique one-of-a-kind. Many utilized the finest papers, noble metals, pigments and photographic print processes "rediscovered" since the reign and dominance of digital, push-a-button prints. Even archival pigment prints are made using archival inks and papers by mills such as Arches and Hahnemuhle. These prints are works of art in the truest sense.Take a look below at some of the processes we use to make these prints. These processes as described below, are simple explanations of sometimes very complex and delicate processes. For every successful print, artists have experimented and learned their processes through many failures, and some delightful surprises! When noted, we do utilize modern methods for special print runs and styles, but the focus here is on Artist-Handcrafted-Prints. All prints are shipped matted (except where otherwise indicated) and in protective sleeves. Print Sizes are approximate Image Size, placed in a larger mat.

Albumen

Similar to both salted paper prints, Albumen prints differ in that the image is place within and on top of a layer of albumen: a coating of egg whites, salt and other ingredients. The paper is coated this way and let dry, and saved in storage until printing is done. Just prior to printing a solution of silver nitrate is brushed on top of the salted albumen, making the paper light sensitive, left to dry in the dark and then exposed with the negative and developed.Albumen has great detail and depth, due to the image floating above the watercolor paper. Yet, the texture of the paper comes through, giving the image an added dimension.

Archival Pigment

Archival Pigment Prints are made with a high end inkjet printer that uses multiple inks. However, none of these prints are simple inkjet prints, as we use special paper and combine the inkjet pigments within the other processes listed above. Printers have from 8 to 11 or more individual ink colors.

Bromoil

A Bromoil print is made by first creating a silver gelatin (darkroom) print, then bleaching away all of the pigment leaving a pattern of gelatin on the paper. This gelatin slowly collects lithographic ink that is carefully applied to the paper with a stippling brush action over a course of numerous layers. The ink sticks to the gelatin, but is brushed or washed away from the paper, resulting in the final unique image.Bromoil is perhaps a dying art. It is a tricky process, and papers suitable for bromoil are increasingly hard to find, and the only other option is to hand coat one's own silver gelatin paper.

Cyanotypes

Cyanotypes are one of the most simple "alternative" handmade photographic print processes. A mixture of ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide is applied to the paper in one or two coats. After drying, a suitable negative is placed on the paper and exposed to UV light for the optimal amount of time. The image develops quickly in a water bath.

Cyanotypes are done at this point, but can be further bleached and/or toned with common substances that contain tannic acids, like oak bark, tea and coffee (just to mention a few).

Duotone

Duotone is not so much of a process as an approach. One or more methods is used to create the print, but instead of one color to create a monochrome print, or three colors to make a full color print, two colors are used. Usually, but not always, the colors are divided into "warm" and "cool" tones, with a different color representing each. The results can be both beautiful and unusual.

Gum Bichromate

Gum Bichromate Prints involve one of the most artistic and serendipitous photographic printing methods. They say no one ever masters it. It involves anywhere from one to multiple layers, and one to multiple negatives, to build a print. No two are the same. Each layer is coated with a mixture of gum arabic, high-quality watercolor paints and light-sensitive potassium dichromate. When the paper dries, a negative covers the paper which is then exposed to UV light. The print is then developed out in a water bath for 30 minutes and allowed to dry. Color science comes into play, and any slight variation in any factor of the printing process creates a different image. Printers of gum bichromate can spend many days (and many failures) to achieve the artistic vision they were looking for.

Gum Oil

Photographs made with Oil Paints? Yes! Really!Gumoil prints, just like Gum Bichromate, use potassium dichromate and gum arabic, this time without the pigment. These two substances are mixed and applied to the watercolor paper and dried. A negative (actually in this case a "positive") the size of the image is placed over the coated paper and exposed to UV light. The paper is then washed carefully, leaving a faint positive image "matrix" upon which Oil Paint will later be applied.When the matrix is dry, a thin coat of high quality oil paint is applied to the entire image and let to "set" for a short time. Then the image is wiped and/or washed with cotton, a sponge or soft rags. The oil paint sticks to the paper, but is repelled to various degrees by the hardened gum arabic.

Kallitypes

When made correctly, toned Kallitype prints are virtually identical to Platinum/Palladium prints and are just as archival. Arriving at basically the same point but through different means, Kallitypes are more labor intensive, but more frugal than Platinum Prints. The added dynamic of toning makes the Kallitype very variable. Between toning and various developers, a wide range of tones can be achieved, from warm browns to eggplant purples to charcoal blacks. A combination of silver nitrite and ferric oxalate is used to coat the paper. A negative the size of the print is placed on the dried paper, exposed to UV light, then developed, toned, fixed, cleared and washed. These Kallitypes are toned in either Palladium or Gold. Essentially, these two "noble metals" replace the silver in the toning process, creating a more archival and stable final print.

Lith

Lith printing is a simple but ‘different’ Black & White printing technique, using ‘ordinary’ B&W or colour negatives, a suitable black & white paper (most papers don't work well) and Lith developer – from which the process gets its name. It involves heavily overexposing a suitable black and white paper – usually by two or three stops - and then only partially developing it in a highly diluted lith developer. It's an alternate way to process prints with a different character.