GELATIN RECIPES
The Hectographic ěPressî,  Bed or Pad
A recipe from the web, used by yours truly and his students:

Turkish Delight Duplicator Recipe
Copyleft Steve & Jenny Glover, 1993,1995

We still use a "Turkish Delight" duplicator for small print run stuff (apa contribs, small con newsletters of the informal persuasion) and security printing (Postscript output -> ghostscript -> 9 pin printer -> coloured Banda paper --> unduplicatable tickets for whisky tastings, etc).

Anyway, here's Jenny's recipe (as obtained from a friend of a friend of a "freedom fighter" who apparently used to run across the veldt duplicating leaflets with one hand and scattering them with another...)

You will need:

  • 1 large roasting tray, big enough for a sheet of paper. This is going to be the 'bed'.

Preparing the "'bed"':
(This recipe uses gelatin, which *can* be produced from non-animal sources, but which usually isn't. Somewhere we have an equivalent recipe that uses carrageenin gel or agar agar, but you will have to work these ones out for yourself by trial and error, as we're not so practised with these ones)

  • In a large saucepan dissolve 100g gelatin in 375ml water
  • then begin to warm it gently while adding 385g of sugar. When it has dissolved,
  • add 715g glycerol and slowly bring the mixture to the boil. Stir gently for one minute while boiling to avert the wrath of the Foam Ghods.

Remove the mixture from the heat and pour it slowly into your tray (care! this mixture boils at a higher temperature than water -- for the purposes of rug rats and house apes, treat it as molten fat).

Make sure that the tray is on a flat surface where it can be left for a few hours until the gel sets.

While the gel is cooling, the Foam Gods can be further appeased by using tissue paper to remove bubbles, foam and 'bits' from the surface.

This file is sort of shareware: if you use this recipe, we'd like to see a copy of the zine, flyer or artwork you produce. Our address is: Steve & Jenny Glover, 3f2 (t/r) 2 Trinity Court, Trinity, Edinburgh EH5 3LE, Scotland, UK.

 

Another press/bed recipe (untested):
Recipes for Art and Craft Materials, by Helen Roney Sattler
(New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shephard Company, 1973)

Thanks to Matthew B. for bringing this text to my attention.

Hectograph Pad

You Will Need:

  • 2 cups water
  • 4 packets (1 ounce) unflavored gelatin
  • A baking pan, 8 x 11 inches
  • 2 teaspoons boric acid solution

How to Make It:

1.  Pour water over gelatin and let stand for 2 to 3 hours.

2.  Pour softened gelatin into baking pan.

3. Slowly bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer over a low flame for 20 minutes. Add boric acid solution.

4.  Set aside overnight.

 

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