Photographers' Formulary 8x10" Puddle Pusher Coating Rods for Formulight Liquid Emulsion

2018-09-29T04:45:17

I purchased this coating rod for a school teacher demonstration of alternative-photography printing techniques. The most common method for coating emulsions like cyanotype and vandyke brownprint is using an art or paint brush, which takes a lot of practice to get the coatings even. Brushing also wastes your valuable chemistry as some is wicked up into the brush, and leads more easily to contamination of your stock. The Puddle Pusher makes it extremely easy to get complete and even coverage of your coating emulsion using very few drops of chemistry. In the photo series, just 18 drops of solution are deposited at the center of the rod, and spread across the paper. The bead if solution at the end is then pulled back, and the process is repeated up to ten times for a very even and consistent coating. Because of the evenness of the coating, as opposed to when using a brush, the prepared papers, I've found, also dry much faster, and dry flatter, making it possible to get on with your contact printing quicker and easier. The attached handle makes it very easy to control. And the glass is easily cleaned and dried to avoid any cross-contamination of chemicals, even when using different coatings in the same session. The length of the rod I ordered is a bit over five inches, making it easy to use for both 5x4 and 5x7 prints.

Leslie S.