“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The print is on the whole darker than my pencil indication on the preceding page, and of much better quality. The lines in the palm, indicated by black lines, are in actuality in white on the original print, so that the effect is the interesting one of a hand in reverse, or perhaps a map or plan printed in reverse. The fingerprints show with fair clarity also. This is but one of many prints I made that evening; I discovered it is not easy to obtain a full print that has good overall detail.

(“A violet. Red, and a grading to yellow.” This is very interesting to me personally; Jane also recalls these details. After spending a couple of hours trying to make a good handprint, I gave up and began cleaning the ink from my hand. This proved to be a job. As I applied scouring powder I was surprised to see the black ink on the palm turn what might be termed a red with violet undertones. This effect at once reminded me of reading that the quality of a black ink can be judged by its behavior when diluted: If a red color develops it means the ink is of inferior quality. The ink I had used was stamp-pad ink purchased at a 5-and-10 downtown.

(The ink might have been of poor quality but it was difficult to remove. The red color was pronounced and I called Jane’s attention to it. She too had had the experience, since she had tried prints of her own a few days earlier. A lot of scrubbing reduced the red stain to a yellowish cast finally, but here I had to let it wear off. This took several days. Thus we have a progression here from black to violet to red to yellow.