
- Get yourself a high-quality copper plate and cut it to size. I use thick, heavy engraver's copper and cut it to 4x5 inches.
- Polish the copper plate, check for blemishes
- Plate the copper with pure silver
- Polish the silver plate to a mirror finish, check for blemishes
- Sensitize the plate over Iodine crystals in a darkroom
- Load into a camera plate holder
- Take photograph
- Develop Daguerreotype using sunlight and red-film (this is called the Becquerrel process which frees me of the requirement of working with a bubbling hot pot of Mercury)
- Clear the Daguerreotype in Sodium Thiosulfate solution
- Wash the Daguerreotype in tap water and distilled water
- Gild the Daguerreotype using Gold Chloride solution and a blowtorch
- Wash the Daguerreotype again in tap water and distilled water
- Dry the Daguerreotype
- Encase in glass with mat for preservation (I put them in cases or in frames)
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