My plan to print my pinhole images onto the surface of OS maps has gotten to the testing stage now. One of my tutors found an old bottle of liquid emulsion in their office that was still air tight so it is promising that it will work. I have a variety of OS maps to test it out on, both the newer paper versions and the older cloth ones.
Apparently once the emulsion is on the surface and dry, I can use it just how I would regular pre-made photographic paper but that I should skip the stop bath. It was explained to me that for some reason, when students have used it in the past, the stop step will cause the image to disappear completely upon drying.
I set about cutting up small pieces of the maps to print photos on, as well as a few test strips to get the exposure right in the enlarger. I then went into the darkroom and began to paint the emulsion onto the maps pieces. The emulsion needs to be in compete darkness when drying, not even under the red light of the darkroom, so I had some draws set up to place the maps in when drying. Due to the length of drying time, I have only so far tested prints on maps with one layer of emulsion painted on, but I have some more pieces with multiple layers of emulsion drying for future tests.
As you can see from the image above, even my most 'successful' of prints did not turn out great. There is definitely evidence of an image on there, that is very clear from the sharp border where the frame held the map during the enlarger step, but there is next to no detail at all. The dark horizontal stripe running across the image is, I believe, where there was a pool of emulsion during the drying process. Once wet with emulsion, the maps began to crinkle and curl, both the cloth and paper versions did this to quite an extent. Below is a comparison of this print, and the same image printed onto regular photographic paper. The map image is barely recognisable when compared to the paper image. In talking to my tutors, we came to the conclusion that this could have happened for a variety of reasons. It could potentially be to do with the fact there was only once coat of emulsion on the map, but most likely it is that the emulsion itself is too old. Due to its infrequent use at the School of Art, it's been stored in the cupboard for a very long time and although the seal was still airtight when I got to it, that may not have been enough.
When the time comes for me to get back in the dark room, my plan is to add a few more coats to my already coated maps and see if that was the issue. If that yields no better results then I will have to look into procuring a newer bottle of liquid emulsion and give that a shot. I will also have to experiment with ways of keeping the map flat when drying without messing with the emulsion whilst it dries. I was so excited to try this out and finally get some physical prints, but this has left me feeling rather deflated.
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