Today is “Father’s Day” in the USA and so my family made a nice fuss over me this morning. My wife presented me with a copy of The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre by Dominic Smith. My son, who is not always a committed conversationalist outside his immediate circle of friends, phoned me and said “So what’s with this daguerreotypes thing?” and actively listened while I rattled on for a while. My daughter has something else planned for this evening – subject as yet unknown. It is good to have family support when you are involved in an obsession. :)

 This morning I decided to make a “minimum/least cost equipment list” since I am getting quite bogged down in all the stuff you “can” get for making daguerreotypes. Here it is:

-Iodine crystals
-Simple fuming box
-Several small pure silver plates (able to withstand multiple attempts/repolishing)
-Polishing compounds
-Several home-made cotton velvet polishers for laborious hand polishing :)
-Camera (either 35mm I have or 8×10 adapted to tiny plate size)
-Rubylith
-Developing tray (have this)
-Saturated salt solution (Have salt)
-Aluminum rod (have this)
-Dark place (Still working on this)
-Water (Very cheap)
-Distilled water (Cheap)
-Sunlight (Available most days)
-Subject of photo (Too numerous to be of concern)

After that (like when I eventually start getting keepers)
-Gilding stand
-Gilding lamp
-Gilding solution
-Case materials

Section two has things that are more complex, or that I don’t really know enough about yet. Section one has its’ own challenges, but at least is a finite list.

However, in homage to the difficulty of the process, I have spent much of the few hours I have today only researching the first item on the list – Iodine crystals. It turns out that in the USA this is apparently a controlled substance because it can be used in the manufacture of Methamphetamines. Good grief. I have posted a plea for help in a new thread on DagForum.com. DagForum is the forum portion of ContemporaryDaguerreotypes.info

Hopefully one of the current practitioners will shed some light. I’m trying to ration my questions there. It is still a small group of participants and I don’t want to wear out the people who have the experience to respond.

I will post a review of the new novel when I finish it.

5 Responses to “Father’s Day”

1. Jon Lewis says:

   June 15, 2008 at 7:12 pm

   “It is good to have family support when you are involved in an obsession.”
   Truer words were never spoken :)
2. Larry says:

   June 16, 2008 at 12:35 pm

   I order Iodine crystals from tack shops (for horses, equestrian goods) online, it is used as a hoof treatment for fungus. They sell it in small quantities to avoid the DEA issues. You can hit up a bunch of them and get all you need.
3. andy says:

   June 16, 2008 at 1:17 pm

   Hey Larry – That’s a great idea. There are a number of things that are available as vet supplies that are controlled in other arenas. That is how I get syringes and needles for hobbyist use for instance.
4. Gregory Popovitch says:

   June 18, 2008 at 2:52 pm

   Don’t forget ebay, for example: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170230792638
5. andy says:

   June 18, 2008 at 4:17 pm

   Interesting. I guess they are just ignoring the DEA regulations. I use eBay a lot, but would wonder about the source and purity of this particular item since there is very little info included and this vendor only has 2 feedback entries. From another vendor with more history and more info I would probably make a purchase (or at least I would have if I had run across it prior to hearing about the DEA issue). It has always been a problem with eBay – it has some great bargains, but I have also wondered if it has become the world’s biggest “fence”.