During the week I have been experimenting with liquid emulsion on glass. Firstly I sprayed the surfaces with 'spray starch', which I had been advised to use as it works as a good subbing layer. Then after that had dried I went into the darkroom and, using a sponge, covered the glass with the liquid emulsion. I then left this to dry over night in the dark.
The next day I exposed the glass, that I had previously coated with liquid emulsion, to one of my images. I started out by doing a logarithmic text strip. This means using a progression that double at each step, for example, 5/10/20/40/80 seconds. This is so I could quickly identify the approximate exposure time.
However, when it came to putting the glass in the developer an image did not appear on the glass. I left the glass in the solution for a while but nothing became visible. I attempted it again using other pieces of glass that I had coated but the same problem occurred. I have been warned though that liquid emulsion is a difficult process and I need to prepare myself for disappointment the first few times I try it!
I have decided to take a step back and not jump in at the deep end! Using glass with liquid emulsion is a difficult material to expose on because it is smooth and porous. Non porous materials for example, paper and fabric are easier to use and take to the emulsion better. The fibrous nature of the material allows the emulsion to bond well.
Therefore I am going to experiment using paper and fabric first to understand how the emulsion works and how to achieve an image on these materials.
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