Thread: Silver Nitrate Dying

Originally Posted by JOB15

I want translucent green horn scales. So let's see what happens.

Things look pretty good to me as shown. It's very difficult to get silver to shift to green, the results not being stable. But for blue-green shades, especially if the coloration of the horn would affect things positively, you might try a cyanotype (blue-printing) combined A & B solution, which involves light-sensitive iron instead of silver. Only problem here is that cyanotypes (blueprints) react strongly to alkalis by fading, so the result would have to be protected from direct contact with soap, and possibly even hard water. In the end, dying might be more advantageous.

I'm curious to know of the stability of your experiments as the silver nitrate has not been stabilized (or rendered insensitive to light through the use of hypo) as far as I can follow from your remarks. A blue-printing solution is stabilized very easily with running water.