The old saying is that when you fix one thing, something else magically breaks. Well, that apparently holds true for me at this moment. Let me explain…
I was so excited yesterday when I figured out how to use 8-month-old red collodion. I didn’t expect much, but when my intuition and experience paid off, seeing the plate look so good was very satisfying.
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Here is a quick photo of the plate after it came out of the wash before I dried it and varnished it.
I made this collodion on August 18, 2023, poured the new plate on April 19, 2024 (dry plate), and then exposed the plate on the 21st.
I decided to rate it at ISO 0.25, and as you can see from the plate above, I was right. Between my ISO rating and pyro development by inspection process, I had successfully tamed the ridiculously old red collodion and bent it to my will (or so I thought).
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Everything up to this point is wonderful. That is about to change…
I didn’t have time to use my alcohol lamp to dry the plate and varnish it after the wash, so I put the plate on the rack and let it air dry overnight.
This is typically not a good idea because you should dry your fresh plates and varnish them right away. This eliminates potential peeling issues that can occur from shrinking and expansion and unintended damage to the thin collodion film on the glass plate.
In my case, it would not have mattered either way.
When I heated up my plate this morning with the alcohol lamp and poured varnish on it, everything looked fine for the first 10 second or so.
That changed very quickly.
The collodion on my beautiful glass plate negative started melting away, right in front of my eyes!!
It all happened in just a few seconds, but it felt like it was in slow motion and took a long time.
Look at this plate!! That is crazy.
Old red got me and decided it would win the fight after all.
I smiled and instantly knew why it happened.
I will explain why.
The very old red collodion is vulnerable to alcohol. Varnish has a high alcohol content to it, and that is what made it melt like this.
After mumbling a few choice words, I laughed and thought, “Wow, I just made some collodion abstract art!!”
There are a couple of options here.
If I really want to use the 8-month-old collodion, I could add a few drops of distilled water to my 30ml of varnish that I measure off in a test tube. By diluting the alcohol, it will typically fix the melting issue.
All joking aside, I do plan on printing this crazy negative and hanging it on the wall in my darkroom along with the sealed bottle of old red collodion.
They clearly belong together and who am I to stand between them.
Here is the good news.
This tree is about 5 minutes from my darkroom, so I will return with some fresh collodion in a couple of days after I allow it to ripen a bit and make a new plate.
This is the behind the scenes video from yesterday when I created the plate.
If you enjoy slowing down with film, darkroom printing, and meaningful photography, consider subscribing to my YouTube Channel. I share new videos each week focused on simple tools, timeless techniques, and the quiet joy of analog.