But morale has improved a bit. Two days of trying to solve a very major "issue." Even though the OHP negatives didn't visibly stick to the coated sheet of paper in a regular split back frame, as it had in the vac frame, there was still trouble. I found odd mottled tone in the prints on close inspection, then found that tiny coated paper fibers had lifted from the sheet and adhered to the negative. Ruining both, of course. Not a matter of the ink not being dry enough, I was amazed to see that there was just as much transfer of fiber to the clear, un-inked film between two test images on the sheets. After a lot of research there appeared to be a few possible cures, none of which were too appealing. But I located a roll of 1 mil mylar (extremely thin but very tough, utterly transparent material) that I'd gotten years ago as part of the testing of another printing method.
Last night I output several new negatives to test, and hung them in the darkroom to cure overnight. I got some mylar from the roll and trimmed sheets on the rotary cutter. Today sandwiched the OHP negatives and mylar, then printed the same test negative of two images five times, checking out two different papers and a couple coating formulas. To my great relief, there was (as expected) no sign of adhesion or transfer between the coated sheet and the mylar, and with even more relief could find no tendency for the film to stick to the other side of the mylar, and no transfer of ink. So I sandwiched up another of last night's negatives and gave it a try.
Woodbury, Connecticut (Dawn on the Ganges, Benares, India, (1969)
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