plexglass face mounting
Hi Loris, Re-iterating what I said on my previous post to the list: I'd be very interested in what you have in mind here. I've been experimenting today with this approach and I'm at a loss as how to proceed. The gum and the sizing sit on the surface of the aluminum. The appearance in one of a smooth and uniform surface, but as soon as the plexiglass is placed on top, all of the imperfections and variances in thickness are readily apparent and not in a good way. In an effort to fill in the spaces and provide a better contact between the print and the plexiglass I tried (because I could not find or think of anything better) "buttering" a aluminum print with a coating a acrylic gel and pressing on the plexiglass. This resulted, of course, with a complete mess: bubbles under the plexiglass - and of course the gel will probably not ever dry. I'm thinking that another approach would be to just lay the print on a flat surface and pour on some casting resin. One thing is certain: these aluminum prints of mine certainly need some kind of protection: 100% of my aluminum prints returning from Istanbul were ruined in one way or another. I knew I was in trouble when I retrieved the packages from customs (a long story in itself) and saw the green "Inspected by US Department of Homeland Security" tape on them. On another note. Do you remember Duygu, the student from the school in Bebek? She sent me this link with some of her photographs: http://www.apelsinen.blogspot.com/ Click on "watch the show" in the bottom left to see enlarged pictures. They're quite nice. I've been encouraging her to try gum printing. Maybe you should start giving workshops? Later, Keith PS. When are you planning on showing the results of your carbon experiments? -----Original Message----- From: Loris Medici [mailto:mail@loris.medici.name] Sent: Monday, December 11, 2006 1:45 AM To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca Subject: RE: First Tricolor Gum (on aluminum) Thanks. Yes I print the cyan layer first - but I still can't register by eye because I use plain paper negatives not transparency material. I'm just using an empirically designed curve. Will calibrate using Mark's system later - when I'm more familiar with the process - I just want to experiment as much as possible right now; can't bother myself with trying to be as precise / consistent as possible. To me gum is definitely not for the control freak... Thanks for the aluminum flashing tip - will look for this material. Since I plan to paint the bare aluminum borders for most of my images (mostly white - but with some color in it, like an overmat / frame) to prevent distraction, a pre-painted material won't do harm... But this won't work for images where seeing the metal borders would be preferred. Next project is: To face-mount the images to plexiglass. (See http://plexiphoto.com/engels/samples.html <- will do something like this - think of it as in-house Diasec mounting. I'm still looking for suitable materials and thinking on procedures...) Best regards, Loris. -----Original Message----- From: sam wang [mailto:stwang@bellsouth.net] Sent: 10 Aralık 2006 Pazar 22:56 To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca Subject: Re: First Tricolor Gum (on aluminum) Loris, Congratulations on printing tricolor on aluminum! A couple of observations: - If you printed cyan, or blue, first, it would be very easy to register by eye. The red layer may then be dominant, but if you are going to apply a black, or anything dark at the end, the red/magenta cast would be toned down. - You would definitely need a curve specifically for the new surface. Even with paper, surface differences sometimes require different curves. - We can buy aluminum flashing already coated with white paint on one side. If it works, then you would not need to apply gesso and save a little work. Again, congratulations and I'll look forward to seeing what else you'll do with it! Sam On Dec 10, 2006, at 11:43 AM, Loris Medici wrote: > Hi all, > > I just wanted to share my very first tricolor gum print (a test print > actually) on aluminum (actually on any media). I just realized that I > set a too hard target for a beginner because: > 1) Working with aluminum is not easy (have to put two coats of acrylic > gesso + two coats of gelatine/CaCO3 mixture - a trick I learned from > Keith Gerling, tonal range and development is quite different from > what is it on paper), > 2) Starting with tricolors instead of (more forgiving) multilayer > monochromes may not be the most logical route to take, > 3) Aluminum is a stable support/media but this doesn't necessarily > mean that registration is easier and more successful - you have to use > some kind of mechanical registration / you can't register by eye. > 4) The whole process is definitely not for the faint-hearted. > > Anyway, the print is here: > http://www.loris.medici.name/Tricolor_Gum_on_Aluminum.jpg > > It's still missing the K layer + as you can easily spot the M layer is > not correcly registered. A very rough print... > > Anyway, let me express my immense admiration for people who are able > to make wonderful prints with this process. Respect! > > Best regards, > Loris.
|
