U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: gum question

Re: gum question



Hi Sam,

Isn't this heat awful? I just went out to see a show a friend was having at the History Museum here, and it's pretty bad-- one reason to stay in and print. it must be 100 here, not counting the humidity. Maybe that's why things are working so well, it's so humid.

Hmm . . . well, I do love this image as is and hate to mess with it. I did try another image (again, on unsized) and it worked out great, too. I'll try it on a sized sheet, too, though. Our water is awful here. I never touch the stuff; I'm one of those awful spoiled people who buys bottled water (even though we all now know that's from somebody else's tap, too).

Thanks, Sam. I'll let you know what happens. Usually, its the hell in a hand-basket scenario for me, but maybe this time will be different. ;)

Diana
On Jun 7, 2008, at 2:57 PM, sam wang wrote:

Diana,

Good to know someone is printing away in this heat! And good to hear about such success with gum.

For one coat gum I've always had very smooth results. The roller obviously helped that even more. I doubt that the use of distilled water had anything to do with it except to make the mix just the right consistency coupled with the roller and humidity and the alignment of stars. As has been said on this list many times there are just too many variable to definitively say about gum. At least that's my experience.

Sounds like the Payne's Grey may have a little to contribute to the smoothness too: a light layer of gum can be so beautiful in that it hints and not beat the image to death. I made some portraits using just a light colored clay found around here and it worked great.

If indeed it's the distilled water that made the difference, your water must be the problem - does it taste funny too? Quoting Mark: hehehe.

Do let us know how the next colors print. And keep out of the hot sun!

Sam

On Jun 7, 2008, at 1:20 PM, Diana Bloomfield wrote:

I have a question for all you inveterate gum printers out there. I'm still toiling away here at tri-color gum, and I had a mix that just seemed too dark and too thick, so I diluted it with distilled water-- probably too much as it ended up very watery-- but I spread it out with a roller, and so it was very even-- but also pretty pale. I printed it, though, and the results were amazing. I was using a piece of Fabriano that I had not sized-- and I couldn't believe it. The result was far superior to some layers I've gotten on a sized piece of Fabriano.

So was this just dumb luck, or is adding distilled water a common practice? I only did one coat so far, and I like it so much, I'm gonna dry this and then size it for subsequent coats, but I could end this print now with this one coat, and I'd be satisfied. It has detail (well, as detailed as an image from a toy camera negative can be), not grainy, very smooth, and no staining. I used Payne's Grey. Anyway, so my question-- is there some downside to adding distilled water like this on a regular basis, other than the obvious (somewhat paler layer than it would be ordinarily, I guess)-- or do people do this all the time and just not talk about it?

I guess I should have paid attention to all those gum posts in the past.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Diana