[alt-photo] Re: PVA for SIZE & GUM ?

[Judy Seigel]

On Thu, 4 Mar 2010, John Brewer wrote:

> When I first started gum printing in the 1990's I used Gloy gum, (not to be
> confused with Gloy paste), for the gum Arabic ingredient. I believe the
> recipe was 'improved' around 2000 and it wasn't suitable for printing with.
> I think someone, (Terry King?), did try to speak to the manufacturers to er,
> 'un-improve' it but I doubt if there was any success.
>
> J.

For what it's worth I mention that I tried the vaunted "gloy gum" when the 
list first heard the word on it from Terry King (somewhere around the 
jurassic age, if memory serves).  Terry's claim was that not only was it a 
great general size, but (as I recall) that it could take 3-coat separation 
without resizing. And he sent me a vial of Gloy out of the kindness of his 
heart.

Alas, on this side of the Atlantic I found it utterly useless, except 
perhaps for re-sealing envelopes.  It's possible, I realize, the water, 
the applicator, the whatever whatever whatever was different enough here 
to cause the discrepancy, but since, at the time, I'd found glyoxal & gum 
arabic quite serviceable I let the matter rest.

But now, in light of PVA size I have another question:  I usually do 
comparison tests with the Stouffer 21-step which give me the confidence 
(foolhardy or not !) to make pronunciamentos, but I have not yet used the 
PVA sitting on my studio table. (Life has, to date, continued to 
intervene.)  My question perhaps should wait til then, but this thread 
brings it up so I ask now...

I expect to run a gum workshop this summer, and tho I usually open a 
workshop with full-fledged paper sizing (shrink, coat, recoat, harden & 
like that), and my instinct is to do that anyway as a token of "history," 
and/or fail-safe in case PVA is a market item that could disappear or be 
changed by manufacturer(s), or not available in the antarctic, I wonder 
how 
folks who use PVA for gum would treat that question?

TIA,

Judy