Blogging for Freyr: Reversed Results

The first time I tried making an osage orange anthotype, I got very odd results. Instead of fading, the osage orange dye exposed to sunlight darkened. With all the sunlight that I've been having lately, I decided to give the osage orange dye another chance to show off its crazy properties. Once again, the exposed portion of the print has darkened dramatically.

This exposure was a bit longer (12 days vs 10) but it shows a much better result. The first experiment was during the winter months, this is during the summer, which accounts for the difference. Sunny weather really is vital for anthotypes. I think osage orange is probably a minimum of one week, even with lots of sun. I checked the exposure and it didn't seem to be moving very quickly.

I'm planning a really extended exposure soon, about a month, just to see what happens. When I quit my job at the university, I had to give back all the stuff I'd borrowed from the lab... including a contact printing frame. So I'm short one of my nicest frames. The month-long exposure will probably be fairly small.