Re: dig negs & gum variables & speaking of "urea"

[Katharine Thayer <kthayer@pacifier.com>]

On Oct 3, 2006, at 8:36 PM, Judy Seigel wrote:

>  but I happen to prefer "thiocarbamide," in the same way perhaps  
> that gum printers seem to prefer "bichromate" to the presumably  
> more uptodate "dichromate." I've wondered why in the latter case,  
> perhaps because we like old terms, as we like old processes, but  
> also because they're nicer to say?-- tho we'd need to consult a  
> linguist on that and I seem to digress... Sorry.)
I like it because it's a tip of the hat back to those who came long  
before us, and because it's the name it's always been known by, and  
because it rolls off the tongue easily.  "Gum dichromate" to my ear  
smacks of insecurity and pretentiousness.  Kind of like when the U.S.  
Mint put out a new nickel to celebrate the bicentennial of the winter  
Lewis and Clark spent in my neighborhood.  One of the diaries from  
the expedition exulted, "Ocian in view!" and every school child and  
every museum curator around here knows that's how it's spelled.  But  
the U.S. Mint spelled it "Ocean in view!" on the nickel, I suppose  
for fear that if they quoted it authentically, everyone would think  
that they themselves didn't know how to spell "ocean."   We all out  
here thought it was pretty silly, and that's kind of how I feel when  
someone calls the process "gum dichromate."

> Speaking of which: CHRIS:  You have declared that vat-sized paper  
> sinks !  Unh, unh !  Maybe in YOUR studio, but not in mine. In fact  
> I don't think I EVER saw a gum print sink in the wash (my paper &  
> my students' paper having been generally vat-sized).
I gotta agree with Judy; when I used to tub-size paper, it never  
sank.  It was Arches, too.  I've never seen a sheet of Arches sink,  
either tub-sized, brush-sized, or unsized, and I've printed hundreds  
and hundreds of sheets of the stuff.  I won't say that I've never  
seen a gum print sink in the wash; I have, but that was Japanese paper.

> Finally, speaking of sizing, I'm wondering if Alberto's friend who  
> got the mold on her gum print had hardened her gelatin size... The  
> conventional wisdom is that the hardening prevents mold (or so we  
> were taught).
My understanding is that the mold is on the gum itself, and I'm  
wondering if the gum was completely hardened. I agree; I'd be  
surprised to see properly hardened gum develop mold.  You'd think it  
would happen here if it would happen anywhere, and I do have paper  
get moldy sometimes,  but I've never had mold develop on a gum print.
Katharine