coating tintypes & ambrotypes

i followed the advice of a fellow photographer on coating metal with emulsion--place the piece of metal onto a metal 4x5 tank turned upside down in a heated water bath to keep warm. luckily, i had purchased an electric skillet from goodwill a while back to use for polaroid transfers, and it was perfect. even though the emulsion did not stay liquid, it did stay liquid long enough to move it around and get a decent coat. this heating method did not work so well with glass or acrylic.

i used instructions on wet plate preparation i found on alternativephotography.com and mixed gelatin with chrom alum and photo flo. the mixture seemed to coat the glass & acrylic & glazed tile fine, but when it came to coating the emulsion, it did not want to stay even. it seemed like the emulsion pulled away from parts and left large areas uncovered. i don't know if the heating caused the gelatin to melt, and maybe i should not have heated it, but it was not wanting to stay on. i'll try making some images and seeing if the emulsion sticks.

i may also try the gelatin mixture minus the photo flo which was recommended for flowing the gelatin over the plate.