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

Re: gum arabic



On Thu, 15 Jan 2009, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:

Since I have never had much choice in location of gum I never gave it much thought, actually, but I much prefer the gum Daniel Smith sells that is very light in color. But I do wonder how much difference gum makes from the different places....
However, my experience (and I also like Daniel Smith gum) is that each season, in fact each *lot* is different, one reason, it seems, being the rainfall in the acacia groves that year. So when I got a gallon I really liked, I immediately ordered another gallon (or two) of the same lot number. But being a process junky has its costs... I now have gum to last the rest of my life.

Among others, I also tried Dave Rose's vaunted "Varn" gum. Most of the gums darken with age, but for whatever reason that one doesn't. AFAIK the "darkness" of the gum is, however,irrelevant... At least I've never seen a difference, even in plain yellow.

However, I add, for what it's worth (and from limited testing) the Varn froze well -- tho that's the only one I tested by freezing.

J.

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