Hello. Recently I changed papers from ilford multi iv fiber to kodak poly fine art fiber. I selenium tone my prints, perma wash them, and put them in archival print washer (20 min). Then i sponge dry them. Since changing paper, the sponge has selenium colored (brownish, purplish)water after sponging individual prints. Is this normal or is there something wrong with this? Is there anything I can do about it? Thanks in advance for the feedback.

-- Marcel Perez-Calisto (marcelperez@hotmail.com), January 20, 2001

Answers

I think you're simply not washing them long enough and/or not giving sufficient water flow.

-- John Hicks (jbh@magicnet.net), January 20, 2001.

Be sure to rinse the prints thoroughly before putting them into the vertical washer. You don't want to load the washer with toner/permawash.

-- Carl Weese (cweese@earthlink.net), January 21, 2001.

If the washer is loading up with stuff from the paper, it isn't doing a very good job of washing.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), January 28, 2001.

Marcel, David Vestal ran some test awhile back on these "archival" washers and compared several models. The results showed that only the cascading type would clean the prints in less than an hour. And some of the models were no better than using a Kodak syphon in a tray. Sounds as if you should maybe pre-wash you prints in a tray prior to putting them into your washer or between the toner and perma wash. Its also not a bad idea to turn the prints every 10 mins. or so when in the washer.

-- jim megargee (jmegargee@nyc.rr.com), January 29, 2001.