Hand Coated Silver Printing ~ (Salted Paper Print)

I have begun the blog with gum printing, but will be adding other processes with time. For now, those discussions will deal with the use of silver (nitrate), coupled with different salt or iron binders to create silver prints. The two I will be dealing with include Salted Silver (Salt Paper) and Kallitype printmaking. I use the term printmaking as it denotes the hands on print-making of historical reference. Not mechanical reproductions of images, all but totally handled and controlled through chemical and printing out processes. I say all but totally, if one considers the use of the modern digital negative as part of the process. With negative in hand, the rest of the process is all done by hand.

Besides the variations in the look of the final print, the primary difference between the noble metal used in the print is longevity, or viable archival life of the print. Silver is a noble metal, although not as noble as gold or palladium & platinum. Silver is said to have a wall life (exhibition) of somewhere between 100-150 years, and perhaps a couple hundred years of the print is out of direct UV light, say, in an album. Gold is used to tone silver prints, with some formulas having the gold coat the silver, others actually replacing the silver with gold, thereby extending the print life another hundred years. Platinum & palladium are the noblest of metals, with a life of around 500 years, perhaps more. Gum prints, on the other hand, would have a lifespan of 1000 years, perhaps more, depending on the quality of pigment used, and amount of direct UV light on the print over it's lifespan. For collectors, that can make a big difference in a print choice.

When I began printing hand coated silver prints thirty years ago, about the only source available at the time was "The Keepers of Light", published in 1979, a scant four years before I began learning the process. I began with the simplest, and cheapest form, which is the 'salt paper' print. Called that due to a literal translation of the process, soaking the paper in a solution of table salt, then drying and applying a coat of silver solution, then printing through a negative using UV light. That's the simple explanation. The particulars are important of course if you are to actually try it out.

To keep this post short enough to read in one sitting.... I will leave a sample what a Salted Silver print might look like. This image is a straight out salted silver print, no toning. After thirty years, and now printing in the 8x10 format, it is unlikely I will tone the fifteen prints I still have from that early portfolio. I will be printing that image, as well as any others in Platinum/Palladium from now on. Back in the day, I was also a single parent, and platinum wasn't something that fit in the budget. Unfortunately, this image is a digital photograph of an original print, which is a poor example, but for now the only means of conveying the image to post.

"Sailboat on Canal" ~ Salted Silver ~ 5"x7" Unique