a new drawing board

At some point last week, maybe it was Friday the 17th, the new paper from Ino Town, Japan arrived. It's extremely lightweight and extremely challenging on every front. 

Here are some notes collected so they won't get lost.

The paper is about 30 gsm which is about 60 percent of the lightest paper onto which have ever printed.

It needs to be sized for Vandyke Brown. It probably works for iron based processes with a coating rod. For silver / iron processes the silver will accumulate and plate out.

I've taught myself how to work with Dosa (basically rabbit skin glue and alum). This paper does OK with  just one coat on each side but will probably be awesome with two coats per side. 

I will probably use the Dosa technique on the Kozo Unryu to solve the pinhole issue.

The paper will require a new curve. An initial print done with a Kozo Unryu negative looked posterized.

Did I mention that the paper is extremely thin? The extensive washing needed for VDB was a bit rough on my first attempt. I managed to not destroy the second attempt but will have to screen dry all of the prints. 

So far I have printed an 11x 14 inch size print. It is going to be a real challenge to print the 23 x 18 inch size images I proposed to the museum.