[alt-photo] Re: Gum solution help needed

[Christina Anderson]

Trevor

You don't even need a a blender to whip it up--you can just mix it with water and it'll dissolve within less than 24 hours with an occasional stir. Actually, you can mix it up at time of use, in your coating mix. Sam Wang does that--powdered gum at time of use.

As far as gum that has "gone off" I feel your pain. My batch that I did not preserve went off rapidly, and since my nose is so sensitive the smell made me practically throw up. That said, if you can stand the sour smell, it is still good to go, very acid, and how in the olden days they used to use it. They would ferment it and the more acid it became, at that time they felt it produced a more stable layer, one that exposed faster. I ended up throwing it all away because it was too much for me.

I have on my test list of things to-do, to compare a lemon juice in place of water coating to a coating mix with sodium carbonate, to see the difference in exposure between an acid and an alkaline solution. 

Off to the Formulary for a week...
Chris

Christina Z. Anderson
christinaZanderson.com

On Aug 7, 2010, at 1:55 PM, Trevor Cunningham wrote:

> I have a very fine gum powder and need a little direction in preparing the solution. I know I've asked a similar question before and Chris Anderson mentioned something about a blender. I made a solution a few months back when I bought the materials, but had a little sojourn in the States and it has since turned on me (no thymol access). When I prepared it, it came out very dark and murky, though I've heard this isn't much of an issue. But I can't help but wonder if I was doing something wrong in the first place. The product I have is Lobachemie (from India) Acacia powder...no other details.
> 
> I hate to post something so simple, but my resources are acutely limited here.
> _______________________________________________
> Alt-photo-process-list | http://altphotolist.org/listinfo