I always have been fascinated by photography.
But with the introduction of the digital camera it all became too easy, too predictable …to me.
So I forced myself to go back to the roots of real analog photography.
Not just by making the photograph itself, but by controlling the entire photographic process.

This brought me back to the middle of the 19th century, to the amazing Collodion wet plate process.
And every single day I feel challenged to refine and improve myself.


For my website please visit : www.alextimmermans.com

Alex Timmermans
Holland


"You don't take a picture, it's given to you"

maandag 11 juli 2011

Making your own varnish

Making a varnish solution isn’t such a big job.
Actually, i like it a lot. Love the smell.........

First you need to get sandarac.
Sandarac (or sandarach) is a resin obtained from the small cypress-like tree Tetraclinis articulata.
Because it contains lots of dirt. I once had an ant in my bottle , you need to filter it very very good.

There is no need to crush the small pieces as it dissolves quite easy in alcohol.
Just measure the needed quantity and drop it in a bottle with the right volume of alcohol.
You can leave it like that for a day or so or take the bottle and shake it several times during watching TV.....
When the resin has dissolved you will have a very cloudy solution which needs to be filtered.
For the first 2 times you can just use normal coffee filters.
You will see the difference as it becomes clearer and clearer after each filtering.
After using the coffee filter i always use laboratory folding micro filters.

After filtering it twice again you will obtain a very clear yellow solution and it is ready as a base.
You will only have to add the needed volume lavender oil to finish this job.

 Weighing the needed amount of sandarac



 There is lots of dirt in the sandarc which needs to be filtered out



 After the first filtering you can see the difference already


 After 2 times using a coffee filter now you filter it twice using micro filters


 At the right you can see the final result.
A clear solution (like a nice glass of beer..)

1 opmerking:

  1. Thanks for the information nice to know how others do it.Just processed this topic greetings

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