Tiring but successful day of art

Today I workshopped my dozen students through film development. I also reviewed the basic process through my first crude powerpoint presentation, rather than some crude drawings on the white board. Most people got images. I have given them double X reversal film (200 iso) rather than the much more challenging high contrast film I often use and have given students in the past (10 iso). I reasoned that the students no longer use enough film to see this other film as a break from the norm or a unique challenge; they simply see it as the reason they no longer use film at all. I think all but two rolls turned out adequate or better.

 I also developed a half roll that I'd had loaded in the optical printer. I used coffee to develop it, based upon Roger Bunting's method like we did in class last term, but with a much larger amount of film. I interpreted his instructions for coffee film developer to mean that the timing would be at room temperature for 25 minutes. As this is about triple the time needed to develop with the Ilford or Kodak developers I usually use, I tripped the time on my temperature/time development correlation graph. Heating the coffee/washing soda mixture to 38 degrees, which would usually develop in 4 minutes, I put the film in for 12 minutes. While this seems to be a multitude of assumptions, it proved correct and the film turned out well (see above).

This evening we went to the Cathedral Community Centre where Margaret hosted a cupcake party and the unveiling of the wooden prototype of Heather Cline's metal sculpture/bike rack which is in the works to be installed there. There will also be two other, slightly smaller ones installed elsewhere in the neighborhood.