After the failure of the Rollei kit last time (oh I didn’t mention that yet, did I?) I decided to go ahead and order the Moersch chemistry. The story of the Rollei kit first then..
I started a lith printing session as usual, by making the baths. I bought some new Rollei Vintage developer as I had too little left for one bath. I decided to mingle the old with the new chemistry in the dilution 115+115+2770 (1+1+24). The paper I used is the new Foma 131 FB. The images didn’t get a proper black. Oh well, I thought, maybe the old bit I mixed in is overaged so I made a whole new fresh batch. Nothing came on the paper…
Okay, maybe I exposed the wrong side of the paper? Doesn’t happen often but it’s possible. Again, nothing on the paper. Darn. Maybe I underexposed the paper (never worked with the new Foma 131 emulsion before). So I exposed 4 times longer. Again, nothing on the paper. And by nothing I mean absolutely nothing. Crap, maybe I accidentally mixed up part A and B the wrong way? I made a whole new fresh bath. Again, nothing on the paper. By now I got thoroughly agitated seeing that I wasted a whole lot of chemistry and expensive paper. Maybe the paper is off? I tried my old familiar Foma 131 FB paper. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. By this time I was convinced it had to be the developer as everything else worked fine before. I mailed the company I ordered it from but haven’t heard from them yet.
I was working on prints for an exhibition, I finished a series, the deadline moved towards 2013 and seeing that I wasn’t a 100% happy with the first series I decided to redo them. Well, I guess I just ran out of luck somewhere 😉 Fed up with the Rollei kit I decided it was time to take the plunge on the Moersch lith developers, which I intended to try for a while now. I ordered the Easylith (to compare a little against the Rollei kit) and ordered the SE5 as with all the additives possible it’s better refineable and controllable than the Easylith. The chemistry arrived yesterday so hope to find the time soon to use it, maybe even this year!
Photography Contrastique - Alternative Photographic Processes 
hope all is well with you indra! happy holidays! i can’t wait to get my hands on this process! hopefully by jan i could start working on this.. i had my friend buy me forte and agfa papers.. i just need the chems! 😀
Happy Holidays Jefrey! I’m thoroughly enjoying the days off after working like mad the last couple of days at our photo store. It’s been really busy! Great that you have the papers taken care off, hope you’ll soon have all the chemistry!