Re: First print on Al

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

Rajul,

I dilute gesso 1:1 with water and then mix that 1:1 with pumice powder.  Are you using aluminum printer plates?  Sometimes these have a slight oil residue - a remnant of the manufacturing process.  It has to be VERY clean.   I use a spray degreaser followed by isopropyl alcohol to get the surface squeaky clean before applying the gesso.  (sorry - I forgot to mention that before....)  I've put 8 gum passes on , but I very seldom have to do that many. 

Keith

On Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 4:54 PM, Rajul <eyeear@telus.net> wrote:

LORIS - It must feel good that the first print is done.

What is adulterated gesso? What color does the adulterant impart to the ground?

After 2 gum passes, the first of my prints cracked in one spot, and small water bubbles are still visible. Perhaps they will be less so after further passes. The texture of the brush-applied ground and brush strokes from the gum emulsion actually seem to lend a different kind of interest to the print.

Application of a 4% formalin-hardened gelatin was uneven (unlike that on paper media) but this is not very obvious in the print-in-progress.

KEITH - can you provide the composition of the thinner gesso mix you use and how many layers of it do you apply? How many gum passes does your gessoed Al allow for?

JUDY - the gesso-gelatin size seems interesting but the difficulty in using it with Al sheets seems to lie in keeping the size molten through the application of multiple coats of it with a roller.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.  Rajul