Just some thoughts in between

All is ready now for the first home project of tomorrow… All is mixed, all is filtered (except for the Silver bath one last time) and the Silver Nitrate has been iodized. All has been labeled properly. Quite a bit of work but really very nice to do. The only sort of issue I encountered so far was mixing the fixing bath, the Sodium Thiosulfate.

I measured 300 grams and putted in a jar. I then started adding the demineralized water until I noticed I had too little a bottle to fit it all in. Huhum, typically my kind of mistakes. When I touched the bottle I noticed the chemical had gotten warm and that it had hardened. Never read that anywhere so was a bit suspicious whether I had the right stuff or not. Poured the water in another bottle and decided to put the former bottle outside.   Long live internet so I went to check on that. Turned out that it’s a normal thing for the anhydrous form of the chemical and when using the penta-hydrate form I would have no issues at all; the Sodium Thiosulfate would dissolve sort of straight away without getting warm but actually doing the opposite.                                                                                                                                                                       In the end I just poured water with it again and slowly it did dissolve; all is fine now. It looks great and has been filtered so ready to use!

Tomorrow will be the big day…I am so looking forward to pour my first plate at home with everything taken care of myself. My younger brother will be my first “victim”, he’s looking forward and does not mind having to sit still for several seconds so I’m the only one to blow it. If this’ll work out I’ll probably start working on a concept to use for an exhibition I have planned at the beginning of next year. It would be great if I could exhibit my first series of Collodion images. I hope I can get it right.

When pouring the plate to go into the Silver bath I realized 8×10 are somewhat different and more difficult to handle than the 4×5’s. The waiter tray method feels so natural whereas the cantilever one is something I have to get used to. But, no life without challenges!

Anyway, enjoy the night, I’m off dreaming some more 😉