Re: direct carbon or gum bleach development

[Keith Gerling <keith.gerling@gmail.com>]

Awesome, Marek.  This is what I want MY prints to look like.  Forget
all that multi-coat nonsense.

On Dec 20, 2007 2:28 PM, Marek Matusz <marekmatusz@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>  All,
>  More experimentation with gum printing and bleach development.
>
>  I was intrigued by Loris's results with using unsized paper. I thought that
> it would give a rather bad stain. My tricolor gum practice certainly led me
> to believe this. However on numerous occasions I did observe that edges of
> paper that I used which did not have gelatin size gave a darker, more
> uniform black. SO last week I tried to use single sized paper, fresh and
> unsized  Fabriano Artistico, and a throw away gum print that has been soaked
> over and over, but had a reverse side of Fabriano paper quite clean. My
> overall conclusion with this set of prints is that I liked unsized paper and
> soaked paper best. They gave crispier prints. Perhaps this technique likes
> the gum to be tied up with the fiber of the paper and the bleach development
> can give clear paper base. So I would advocate use of straight watercolor
> paper, no need to size. I have not tried any other brand, but I should have
> some at hand and will try next printing session.
>
>  I have also experimented some more with pigment density. I had a more
> concentrated carbon stock of 3.75% carbon in 14 baume gum, that is 50% more
> then in my last set of experiments. The solutions are left over from dozens
> or maybe hundreds of experiments done in the last two years. Once the water
> dried out this would result in 3.75/0.27=14% carbon/solid gum mixture (I
> assume 14 baume gum is 27%). This is definitely black black. Beautiful
> velvety matte texture of the deep black to take your breath away. Scan of
> the print here. This print was made on unsized Fabriano Artistico paper
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/marekmatusz1/GumBleachDevelop/photo#5145909559997921266
>  The mid tones are a little bit darker on this screen that in reality. Maybe
> even the two tones of black on the very edge are visible. Very outside, had
> most exposure (I uped the exposure to 6 minutes from last time) and next to
> it is somewhat lighter edge from exposure through blank part of transparency
> (Pictorico). This is a further illustration of how a fine tonal gradation
> can be achieved with this method.
>  I have also included an detail of the print scanned at 300 dpi:
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/marekmatusz1/GumBleachDevelop/photo#5145909521343215586
>  Happy printing
>  Marek
>
>
> ________________________________
> Don't get caught with egg on your face. Play Chicktionary! Check it out!