Re: Question about Masa paper

[Katharine Thayer <kthayer@pacifier.com>]

On Jan 23, 2007, at 7:28 AM, Katharine Thayer wrote:
> I found that the  nap seemed to break the pigment (ivory black) up  
> into speckles while I was brushing it on (this is different from  
> the speckles that result from a faulty internal size, so I don't  
> know whether sizing would help that problem or not); it needed more  
> brushing than most papers because of the nap.  But I only did these  
> few little tests and someone who put more time into working with  
> the paper might be able to figure out how to get the coating on  
> smooth without a lot of brushing.
After doing a couple more quick tests, I need to amend my statement  
above.  The speckles on the nap side occur immediately on first  
coating, rather than appearing after extended brushing, but unlike  
stain speckles, the speckles in the lighter areas disappear when the  
gum dissolves; only the shadow areas are speckled,  which may or may  
not be a problem depending on your sense of what a gum print should  
look like. And I don't know if a size would fix that or not.

 The test print I posted for the nap side yesterday was  
underexposed; as I said I hadn't yet calibrated my protocol for the  
longer exposures the Masa paper requires.   So I replaced that one  
with a closer to optimal exposure today, to give a better comparison  
between the smooth side and the nap side.  Besides the shadow  
speckling, you can also see that the print on the nap side is softer.

http://www.pacifier.com/~kthayer/html/Masa.html
kt