sinkers and floaters
{And Chris, I mention in passing, that if you want to run a who-develops-the-longest contest, a propos of how & why the paper sinks -- my NORMAL development used to be overnight: It worked while I slept. Then, often as not I had to rush off in the morning so it sat the rest of the day, too. All that requires is enough exposure....In fact I'm in awe of folks whose regular development is 10 minutes. That to me is a real high-wire act -- VERY little margin for error! I don't in fact think I've ever done it, because if I felt I had to pull at 10 minutes, the thing was underexposed and ran like crazy or underdeveloped and almost uninflected.Well, throw that theory out the window then. Honestly, it is really unimportant to me why some gum prints sink during development and some do not...I never observed it before until I worked with Arches and Arches sunk all the time, and now this Uno which sinks less frequently but still does. But Uno never sank on me until I tray sized it, so that is the only variable different this time. The only plausible explanation is that my gelatin layer is thicker and heavier on these pieces. In fact, what is important to me is that if I were to develop for a long time with papers other than brush sized Fabriano Artistico I would leave the print to develop face up. There's nothing worse than coming home and finding your print at the bottom of the bathtub and marred. So, in my book, forewarned is forearmed--if it can happen, it should be said that it can. But generally my development, since I do a big batch of prints at once, is carried out in an hour. Otherwise I would not have room in my tub for all of them. Aside from the fact that when I am gum printing no one can shower, either...but my grandson loooovvves splashing around in the dichromate water with me (I'm kidding guys). Chris
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