Re: Masa-gum question for Keith Gerling
regarding your "I love the > painterly gestures you've incorporated into the backgrounds of your prints, > which I'm guessing are at least partly enabled by the characteristics of the > paper." Thank you, but I rarely introduce intentional painterly gestures, rather they are a result of fast and sloppy work! If you are referring to works such as this: http://www.gumphoto.com/masa/pages/dance49.htm then those red streaks are just areas where the hasty application of emulsion (made prior to my dilution of the mix) caused the emulsion to sink into the paper and stay there, whereas much of the rest of the magenta unfortunately (or fortunately?) washed away. Other similar flaws can be seen here http://www.gumphoto.com/masa/pages/dance55.htm and here http://www.gumphoto.com/masa/pages/dance060.htm. Streaks like that can be avoided by careful application of the emulsion with a roller. That is why I choose to use a brush. I cannot say that the artifacts are the result of the paper, except to say that the paper thin nature encourages a rapid coating. And yes, I size with gelatin. BTW, the majority of those dancer pictures were gum over cyanotype. On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 3:47 PM, Katharine Thayer <kthayer@pacifier.com> wrote: > > On Sep 23, 2008, at 11:10 AM, Keith Gerling wrote: > >> Thanks! >> >> There are disadvantages working with masa, but the price makes up for >> them. With masa you actually get two papers, as the rough side and >> the smooth side are completely different. There are actually a few >> interesting little surprises that await those willing to experiment. > > I look forward to discovering those, I think? :--). I love the > painterly gestures you've incorporated into the backgrounds of your prints, > which I'm guessing are at least partly enabled by the characteristics of the > paper. Have you been a painter, too? Your work is very painterly, and I > mean that as a compliment. > > Actually, not that it matters, but just for the record, I think I may have > been the first to try printing gum on masa, or at least to report it on the > list. Loris, I think, posted some cyanotype on masa and someone asked me > offlist if I'd ever tried gum on masa. I said no, I never had, but I had > some masa and would try it just for the heck, and I did and posted it that > afternoon. That was... (checking the creation date on the page, which I've > since taken offline)...gosh, nearly two years ago. how time flies. I > didn't bother to size it, and found the nappy side very difficult to coat > smoothly, but the smooth side coated beautifully and easily and printed well > too, at least for one coat, which was all I did. I commented that it was a > delight to find a really smooth paper that was easy to coat (Arches bright > white, unlike most other HP watercolor papers, is a real PITA to coat > evenly, though I love the smoothness of its tones once printed) and that the > speed of drying was a big plus, in addition to the price. I never took it > any farther than that, myself, and now that I want to, I can't find any masa > in my flat file. Grr. > > By the way, as a general note (file under "do as I say, not as I do") I > would caution people to always write in pencil at the edge of odd papers you > might accumulate over the years, what they are, if it's not evident from a > watermark. Going through my flat file today, I've found any number of > one-sheet-of-a-kind papers that I have no idea what they are. > Katharine >
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