Xray in Juniper Developer

Experiment - 1st try ... Last thursday I was staring at a Juniper tree wondering if the berries would make a good developer. So I grabbed some Juniper Berry Powder.

 

Recipe:

 

Juniper berry Powder - 10 gm

Sodium carbonate - 15 gm

Ascorbic Acid - 10 gm

Potassium Hydroxide - 5 gm

80 alcohol - 40 ml

Water - 300 ml

 

DONT USE THIS ....

 

I made a mistake when mixing and ended up with a paste I had to dissolve. That is where the alcohol and the potassium hydroxide come in.

 

Fuji X-ray film HR-U shot at ISO 75 in a Ansco Shure Shot B-2. Big aperture, instant setting.

 

Developed by inspection for 160 seconds (yes very fast, an image appeared in 20 seconds). constant agitation in the tray. Water stop and rinse for 1 minute. Fixed for 2 minutes in Hypam Rapid 1:4 (nearly exhausted).

 

So yes Juniper Berry's work HOWEVER.... As you can see I go some splotching in development. I hoped it was the lousy fixer, but alas it was not. So on further examination, there is a lot of resin and what not in the developer that filtration did not take out. Plus my mistake literally took the developer from a powder to a solid and then a liquid.

 

I am working on a better batch that will be more of an extract. it is soaking as I write. We will see.

 

BUT, it is a success at some level. And VERY fast. So quite a bit of dilution is possible. Perhaps 5gms / 300 ml or less? That is pretty inexpensive....

Done