Placed the free picnic table in the backyard next to the RV and the 2nd free shelf in the carpentry room! Then did a cleanup!
You never understand how important shelves are until you have some and load them up. Only then do you realize how bigger the room becomes.
The shelves will help the work flow. First I have more room to do carpentry stuff and second, I can find my tools and carpentry supplies easier!
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| Full Shelves |
The press room with 2 pieces of 3/4 inch plywood is ready and awaiting the press. Once the insurance check clears at the bank I will go ahead and transfer the press with Nick the current owner. It will probably be in place by next week sometime!!
This is what AI said about the benefits of 2 versus 1 sheet of plywood for strength and weight spreading.
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I picked up a second large self today, thanks Edward. Also got me a banged up picnic table. I will fix up the table and paint it. A nice little project.
BOTH FREE
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I ended up going with the biggest VEVOR model metal guillotine cutter, their 32 inch. It was a $105 more than the one I posted earlier, but on sale, $359.90, down 16% from $429.99.
The main use for this cutter will be to cut the photopolymer metal backed plates used in modern phtogravare printing. I initially will be cutting the 16x23 inch store plates into 4 sections.
A bit of a gamble, hope I can use it lots. If I do them that means my photogravure dreams came true!
Note* I can also use it for general carpentry work.
Trying to figure out the best way to cut 16x23 inch photopolymer down to smaller sizes (metal backed). Hand shears seem the best option for straight even cuts. Part of the Photogravure printing process.
Thinking of this tool $255 CAD
Kinda has a “French Revolution's Reign of Terror (1793–1794” feel to it!
I picked up a free heavy duty metal shelf today. I washed it, added a can of blue spray paint and placed it in the carpentry workshop. It is great place to keep all my power tools, neatly in one area! Strong sturdy and free you got to love that!
I am a bit amazed how important the carpentry shop has come to be for the photography. My original thought was to make frames for the Ambrotypes but since then it has grown. I am making boxes for my glass plates, air conditioning cupboards, plywood sink counter tops and boxes for the darkroom trailer. The list of useful photography related things I can make in the shop continues to grow.
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| You can get some useful things for FREE |
I found a great source for learning about the Photogravure process. Silvi Glattauer also gives workshops in Melbourne Australia and online.
Got a lightweight, smaller, aluminum folding scaffold today. Delivered to the house, cost was $75 CAD. A lot more expensive, new online ($366).
Bought it for work around the house (painting etc.) but I might be able to incorporate it into the AMBROTOS KANATA project as well. Camera support? A raised sitting position? Inside a tent as a shelf? Not sure just yet how I will use it but the light wait and functionality gives me options.
The small room I am going to do my Photogravure limited edition work (once I learn the process) in is ready. The vinyl floor was installed today for $940. They did a good job, everything looks sweet.
So far the entire post burst pipe renovation, upstairs and downstairs at the house cost is about $3000 CAD.
Will try to place the press in the new space later this week.
I have the 12v AC unit setup and working, connected to the Jackery power supply.
I am hoping it will provide a consistently cooler workspaces allowing for both myself and all the wet plate chemistry to keep working consistently well.
Temperature is such an important part of the process. Let’s hope this works. The AC unit is a $500+ gamble.
Note* I did a test run and I think I can get about 4 hours of cold air out of the unit at the coldest setting.
Note** I have 2 Jackery 1000w units.
Note** I can recharge the Jackery a number of ways. Via 110 power, 12v power or through 2 solar panels.
Made up a scrap wood cabinet today. Not the nicest looking thing, a bit crooked but it should serve its purpose well and it is strong n sturdy.
The plan after painting is complete it to place it at the front of the darkroom trailer under the counter top. It will hold my new 12v AC unit along with the Jackery 1000 watt power supply.
I did a test run and I think I can get about 4 hours of cold air out of the unit at the coldest setting.
Note* I have 2 Jackery 1000w units.
Here is a video of the 11x14 selfie I did a few days back. I have grown to like it. Will continue to work along these lines.
So much wet plate photography done in the modern era is just plain bad. The photographers get so filled up with the process and the techniques that they forget to make good photographs, especially in portraiture. There are so many bad, boring, mundane portraits made by wet plate photographers , that it becomes a painful just to look at them all!
I want to create unique Ambrotype portraiture. How to do that? How can they be more than a fancy old process? How to create work that speaks to s different level of thought and awareness. Something that reaches past the humdrum and ordinary?
It will be very difficult to do something unique. It is doubtful I can do chase down my pretentious hopes and do more, but I can at least try make the imagery more thoughtful and visually unique. Then from that point, maybe something deeper can eventuality be attained, with lots of hard work and the right sitters.
First attempts, will try more tomorrow.
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| 11x14 inch Selfie, May 27th 2026, age 63 |
Found an old safelight in my old gaaragee. There were two like this in the box. I had bought them years back, but never used them. Now I am! One for the traiiler darkroom, one for the house darkroom. Its strange how these things you bought and forgotten in the past become important in the present.
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| attached security with 2 screws to the wall. I need to attach the red dome better. |
I will continue to work on my portraiture, this is the best of thee day. Out of focus but has a feel to it. I might have to bring in a flash at some point. Trying to manage things in available light, working with different lens now, trying to figure out what works best.
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| 11x14 Selfy |
Sometimes its nice to have a cool, secluded, quiet place where you can relax, read a book. My carpentry area is such a place. The chair is quite comfortable, a Goodwill find.
Setup making my first Ambrotypes in over 1 years time. It is all coming back to me! Trying to do 11x14 self portraits in available light.
To create photogravure prints in the old days, and still today, they made expensive copper plates that were etched in acid. With time a new easier way was developed, you used light sensitive polymer sheets, that are exposed through 2 steps using a transparencies (not sure exactly how it is done). Now the simplest, cheapest and fastest way to make a photogravure plate is using an inkjet printer that directly prints onto the polymer sheet, no transparencies required!
I found this today.; The video makes the process look simple, it is not. I will need to become a very proficient at plate makking, even a bit of a master, if I hope to do the photogravure limited editions I plan on doing.
Photogravure Plate and Print Making
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| Epson printer plate direct-to-plate method |
Today I am working on the reopened (after winter) carpentry area of the house. Am making 3/4inch (5/8 in reality) plywood pieces to place under the press. I will place 2 plywood boards under the press.
The press weighs over 1000 lbs. It will be placed in the basement of my home but on a raised floor (about 12 inches). Placing plywood under the press helps support and spread the wight more evenly. I have learned that 2 plywood sheets offer much more load bearing protection, so I am going with 2 painted 3/4 inch plywood measuring 4 feet x 5 feet 6 inches.
This set up should provide a safe press support for the last 20 years or so of my life as I make my limited edition photogravure prints of my life’s work.
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| 2 is better than 1 |
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| My 2 freshly cut and painted 3/4 inch plywood, weight transfer baring boards! |
