Glyoxal dilution

February 24, 2012

nonetodate asked: I know you said that you use Glyoxal as your paper hardener. Do you use this straight or is it diluted? Also, how many coats do you put onto the paper and is it reapplied after a few coats of the pigment colors have been applied?

I mix up about 20 ml of 40% Glyoxal per liter of tap water and sometimes add ½ teaspoon of baking soda per liter.   I use up to about a dozen individual layers of sensitizer and pigment.   Staring with Magenta, then Yellow and Cyan, each layer takes about 1 ½ hours to coat, expose, develop and dry before I apply the next layer.  I usually work on several prints at a time over the course of two days (aprox. 20 hours or so.) 

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