Shorter days. less light – cold and gloom. The holidays are not always conducive to creativity. In fact I find it hard to fight off a sort of lethargy at this time of year. That is why I look for opportunities to motivate myself when I can and today I found two of them. Read more »
Daguerreotype Process | andy | December 20, 2008 | 
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artist, case-making, castle, Contemporary Daguerreotypist, daguerreotype, daguerreotype process, inspiration
Yesterday I had some free time so I decided to try my hand at cutting some daguerreotype cover glasses. I plan to make my first daguerreotype attempts at sixth plate size using the Becquerel process, so I was going for 2 3/4″ by 3 1/4″ covers. I have had past experience cutting large pieces of glass for window repairs and I have not had much trouble with that, so I figured that it would be an easy project. Wrong. Read more »
Daguerreotype Process | andy | November 30, 2008 | Comments (2)
cover glass, cutting glass, daguerreotype, daguerreotype process, lapping glass, Plate preparation, Plates, polishing
It has only taken me five months to get around to this, but I finally made a new set of ground glass clips for my 8×10 camera. I followed my own suggestion and did not try to replicate the original clip, but stuck to a very simple design instead. Total cost if you don’t count any tool purchases, about USD$1. Read more »
Daguerreotype Process | andy | November 26, 2008 | Comments Off
My Dwyer Vaneometer came in the mail on Friday and after a challenging weekend on Hospice duty I finally had a chance to unbox it today and test my fume hood. Success! Read more »
Daguerreotype Process | andy | November 2, 2008 | Comments Off
I had a fair amount of time this weekend to work on things daguerreian and I made small progress on a number of fronts. I finally created a lens board for my camera – amazing how quick something can go when you have the right tools. Version 1 was made using a wonky old backsaw and didn’t fit right. V2 was made with my new Ryobi portable table saw and looks to have 1/32″ tolerances. Read more »
Daguerreotype Process | andy | October 26, 2008 | Comments (5)
8x10, camera, castle, daguerreotype process, fan, fume hood, lens, photography, Plate preparation, Plates, polishing, silver, speed control
Courtesy Lib. of Congress
Continuing my progress on preparing to do 4×5 daguerreotypes. The camera currently only has a “hat shutter” so I have been looking at available shutters for my large lens – the only new one available seems to be the Packard shutter. This item, still made by the son of the creator is available for $850 [...]
I was going to write a short post about today being the anniversary of the first announcement of the daguerreotype, but a half hour of research revealed that the real story is more complicated – announcement today – perhaps first printed tomorrow, possibly unpublished circulars from earlier dates, first english language announcement, etc., etc., etc. So [...]
Did some testing of liquid bromine on various kinds of plastics today. Only PTFE was non-reactive as far as I could tell. Have plastic samples now sitting in a container with iodine crystals.
Was doing some research on Rubylith and added a very short article about it to the CDags Wiki. I need to find more people to help add articles to the wiki, it is still pretty threadbare…
Had a nice inquiry e-mail about the sliding fume box from Javier Camara in Japan. It is always good to hear from fellow daguerreian explorers. I advised him that it was still a work in progress ( the word progress being used in a rather optimistic manner). I still haven’t charged up the bromine side of the box [...]
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