Silver gelatine prints on Washi paper

I tried to do some darkroom prints on washi in order to get deeper blacks than on inkjet. My first few experiments have been failures

Cutting a template for layout of 4×5 contact prints

The Fomapan emulsion which I used takes hours to melt in 40°C waterbath

When left to dry, I could already see the paper start to wrinkle a lot

I was also stupid when leaving the masking paper on top to aid with registering later. I used it to save on emulsion, but it ended up glueing itself to the paper

The emulsion was spread with a brush and two layers were applied. One could’ve been plenty

This meant that I couldn’t get good contact for the negatives even when pressing down with the glass. Also the paper sheet was bigger than my biggest trays which lead to uneven development. For washing I wrapped the paper in mosquito net which seemed to protect it from handling. Washing takes a lot longer than your basic FB print. I unrolled it for drying flat

Complete failure. There was a bit of potential though. Deep blacks could be achieved on 70gsm paper

For the next attempt in the future, I need to find a coating for the backside which could help it to dry flat