SL-24

An open source record lathe

The SL-24 record lathe is a fully integrated open source record cutting and embossing lathe I started working on in late 2021. While the goal for the lathe itself is to produce small runs of individual and experimental records on sustainable materials the overarching idea is to create a high quality and accessible open platform that can serve as basis for further developments and experiments by others.

The manufacture of records, as compared to tapes and CDs, has been in a weird spot; with an almost ubiquitous availability of recording media (a piece of polycarbonate from the hardware store works just fine) but a complete lack of affordable and accessible devices to do the recording with. A situation, it seems, a lot of people who own record lathes are more than happy with.

Fuck that. Records for the people!

Cyanotypes

Exploration of iron based photography

Cyanotype is a photographic process developed in the 1840s by John Herschel which typically relies on the photosensitivity of ammonium ferric citrate or ferric ammonium oxalate in conjunction with potassium ferricyanide to create an image made of the pigment prussian blue.

Chemically it represent the photoreduction of an iron(III) di- or tricarboxylic acid salt and subsequent reaction with the ferricyanide or ferrocyanide ion to form ferric ferrocyanide also known as prussian blue.

In it’s classic and most well known form it is usually used for making contact prints either for artistic or technical purposes.

I have spent the last few years investigating improvements to this process to make it suitable both for use with enlargers and in camera photography.