Re: more gum
Scott, 2 things--I only use about 2.5-5ml combined mix for an 8x10. Also, it is very difficult to get a good print in one coat unless you have a lot of pigment in the mix which I don't think 1/2" is in 12ml. Just tell her to print several coats at different exposures with little pigment in the first layer and longer exposure and lots of pigment in the last layer with shorter exposure, that kind of thing. Uneven--I brush with a Connoisseur hake brush and usually am finished in 45 seconds. Then I flick it smooth with a dry brush. Gum coating is NOTHING like cyano or VDB. You have to do it quick, even, in all directions, and then leave it alone. The biggest problem with beginners in gum is they want to develop it quick and get a print done. It has to be zenned...put it face down and leave it alone for 1/2 to 1 hour, picking it up by a corner occasionally and then putting it back down. If in that time the highlights are still really dull, there are other factors to consider doing--cutting exposure, cutting dichromate, adding more pigment, etc. etc... Chris ----- Original Message ----- From: "Weber, Scott B" <sweber@mail.barry.edu> To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca> Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 4:33 PM Subject: more gum I have very little experience in gum printing and one of my students has decided to print gums. She bought the gum "kit" from Bostick & Sullivan and followed the directions in Chris James book for glyoxal-gelatin coating to size the paper then used the 6ml gum, 6ml pot. dichrom (10%) with about 1/2 inch of watercolor pigment to sensitize. Starting with a digital neg chosen by exposing the color density range palette from PDN she arrived at a negative which is sort of orange. The resulting images are weak and the coating is very uneven. This student knows how to coat paper as she produced excellent prints in my class with cyano and VDB's. She is frustrated and I said I would try to help. From my description does it look like we are doing anything wrong? I know many of you are excellent gum printers maybe through your experience you might see something that she is doing wrong.
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