Seaweed Developer Recipe
An open resource created by artist, Laura Phillips
Artist Laura Phillips has created an easy to follow recipe using seaweed to develop black and white film.
Read on for the resource or download it as pdf on the button below.
Bladderwrack:
This brown seaweed lives in the mid shore and looks a bit like bubble wrap with the distinctive air bladders that give it its name.
Probably the seaweed most associated with the UK, Bladderwrack is a common wrack seaweed which grows between the high and low water marks on rocky shores. Bladderwrack has round air bladders which allow the seaweed to float upright underwater, this helps them exchange gases and absorb nutrients when submerged. It forms dense beds on the mid shore, often together with Egg Wrack. It provides a shelter for many creatures and is a food source for others, including the Flat periwinkle.
Bladderwrack is an olive-brown 'wrack' seaweed and is between 15cm – 100 cm. It can be recognised by its strap-like, branching fronds that have air-filled 'bladders' along their length (often appearing in pairs either side of the pronounced mid-rib). The edges are not serrated.
Although a common seaweed be sure to follow foraging codes and ethics.
N.B. This recipe was tried and tested using Ilford HP5 120 photographic film using Bladderwrack seaweed harvested in Jun 2020 from Ladye Bay in the Southwest of England.
Please note this is an experimental process therefore times and temperatures may vary depending on season etc.
In preparation I shot the 120 film and then pre-loaded it into a Paterson Photographic Developing Tank.
What you will need:
Seaweed
Shot B&W film (I used Ilford HP5)
Paterson Developing tank
Thermometer
Hot water
Jug & bowl
Vitamin C powder
Soda Crystals
Spoon to stir the mixture
Scales
Recipe
Collect a handful of fresh Bladderwrack seaweed – about 150g.
Boil 500ml of hot water, pour onto the seaweed and leave overnight.
In a separate jug, mix 100g of soda crystals with 300ml water and dissolve completely. Water needs to be warm (38 degrees or over) for crystals to dissolve
In the jug with dissolved soda crystals, add 24g vitamin C powder to the mixture and dissolve completely.
Add 450ml of your seaweed “brew” to the Soda Crystal & Vitamin C mixture.
Heat to 31 degrees. You can do this by putting the jug of seaweed developer into a larger jug of hot water creating a bain-marie.
Pre wash film by pouring 500ml of warm water (not too hot otherwise you will scold the film) into the tank; soak for 1 min, pour out and repeat once.
Pour the developer into your developing tank. Agitate: either by inverting the tank for the first 30 secs or using the swizzle stick. The total developing time is 14 mins and temperature should be kept to 31 degrees. You need to do 5 inversions every 30 sec.
Wash for 2 minutes.
Fix as usual with Ilford Rapid Fix. Don’t pour fix away you can reuse it! Fix should be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.
You can try using salt water instead of fixative to stabilise your film. Salt has a dissolving limit of 359g per litre. So, for a 120 or 35mm film you could mix the following solution - 150g salt with 500ml water. You will then need to leave the film in the salt water for 24 hours.
Wash for 10 minutes and hang to dry.
This recipe was made with guidance from some amazing artists. If you want to learn more check them out!
Thanks and gratitude go to:
Julia Parks, Melanie King and Dagie Bruhdert
Created by Laura Phillips, 2021 @lauraphillips86
Laura Phillips, b.1986 Bristol, is a Sagittarius, non-smoking artist who lives and works between Bedminster, South Bristol and Southmead, North Bristol. Her work investigates the complexity of obsolescence and precarity as narrative devices. Phillips uses a mixture of photochemical processes, sounds and digital imagery and often makes work through conversation and collaboration. She makes films and plays waterphone in the audio-visual project Viridian Ensemble, who perform live improvised music and images (both digital and analogue) to produce an ethereal blend of film and noise which reimages folklore and femininity. Their recent releases include The Prelude commission for The Quietus and Aerial Festival 2020. Her work has been acquired by the Arts Council England Collection, and previous presentations of her work include at International Film Festival Rotterdam (2020); Supernormal Festival (2019) Oxfordshire; NAWR at BBC Studios Swansea (2019); and Arnolfini (2019/20), Bristol.