[alt-photo] Re: Gum over cyanotype question

[Diana Bloomfield]

Thanks, Mary.  Yes-- you have some really really lovely images there.  To my mind, it still seems easier to just stick with the one process.  Maybe my mind just wants to deal with one thing at a time. ;)  It would be a plus, though, to reduce that total amount of dichromate used.  

Diana
On Feb 27, 2012, at 5:05 PM, Mary wrote:

> Thanks for your kind words, Loris! (blush)
> 
> Too much blue has not been a problem for me except in a few cases, and it was usually due to accidental over-exposure, or just poor printing technique and laziness about curves. In a couple of cases where the blue was too much, I have gently bleached the print in a very dilute solution of washing soda (sodium carbonate) for a few seconds, then thoroughly rinsed before going on to the first gum layer. That tames the blue if it's too strong. I'm using FAEW, hot and soft press, by the way.
> 
> I was of your mind, Diana, before I tried using cyanotype for the blue parts of the print. Why introduce yet another process and all the additional steps needed for that? Then I tried it at Chris' workshop in Montana in 2010 and that convinced me. The main reason I like it is that it's quick and easy (develops in a few minutes) and provides a nice framework for the other layers. It requires no dichromate, thus reducing the total amount I use.....Unless I choose to do an additional final blue gum layer, as Chris recently mentioned she does. Sometimes I do that at half strength and it's just enough to put the icing on the cake, so to speak, bringing it all together.  But in general, it's not an issue of too much blue with cyanotype, rather too little by the time the print has all 3 colors on it.
> 
> But as has been said hundreds of times about all this stuff, Your Mileage May Vary!
> 
> Glad you pointed to Jim Larimer's gum-over cyanotypes, too. They are among my favorites.
> 
> Cheers,
> Mary
> 
> On 2/27/2012 2:23 PM, Loris Medici wrote:
>> Hi Diana,
>> 
>> I guess it depends on your style / vision. You know Sam's, Christina's
>> gum over cyanotypes. (And many many others, too many to name
>> actually... But let me provide links to Mary's (Donato) two great
>> galleries consisting gum over cyanotypes below:
>> 
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