[alt-photo] Re: sizing options for color gum

[Paul Viapiano]

You can brush out those fish eyes... Just keep brushing if that's what you're experiencing.



On Jan 18, 2012, at 3:39 AM, Henry Rattle <henry.rattle at ntlworld.com> wrote:

> Hi - a year or two back I did some comparisons between PVA and my normal
> sizing of 3% food gelatin brushed on with formalin in a well-ventilated
> room. I use Saunders Waterford HP or Fabriano Artistico traditional white
> CP, and these tests were with 3-colour prints coated in the order Winsor
> Yellow - WN Permanent Rose - Winsor Blue (green shade).
> 
> The conclusions in my notebook were:
> 
> PVA sizing is very quick and easy, and the paper curls less than with
> gelatin.
> 
> At full strength, the Gamblin PVA-sized paper was hard to coat evenly with
> gum/pigment - lots of fish-eyes and lots of brushing needed (with gelatin,
> the gum goes on with relatively little brushing). Clearing the gum coat
> after exposure was almost too easy.
> 
> With 1+1 dilution of the PVA, gum coats went on better. 1+2 was harder to
> clear. Clearing was OK, but the final texture of the prints, viewed close
> up, was noticeably less smooth with the PVA than with gelatin. The print
> texture is "speckled" - maybe I did't coat the PVA well enough - but I
> preferred the smoother final texture of the gelatin-sized print. Of course,
> as Chris pointed out, PVA is a lot less hassle than coating with hot, smelly
> gelatin!
> 
> I'll give it another go - and next time I think I'll try Diana's approach of
> sizing only after the first colour layer. What a great source of inspiration
> this list is!
> 
> Best wishes to you all
> 
> Henry
> 
> 
> On 17/01/2012 14:08, "Peter Blackburn" <blackburnap at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Fair enough, to each his or her own. I originally kept an iron around as a
>> "quick fix" to help flatten papers which exhibited too much curl and buckling.
>> 
>> Peter J. Blackburn
>> 
>>> From: dhbloomfield at bellsouth.net
>>> To: alt-photo-process-list at lists.altphotolist.org
>>> Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:51:52 -0500
>>> Subject: [alt-photo] Re: sizing options for color gum
>>> 
>>> Thanks, Peter.
>>> 
>>> I actually did all but #3 on your list.  Honestly, I don't even think
>>> I own an iron (and don't plan on buying one any time soon).
>>> 
>>> The final coat  (unsized) was actually fine; I certainly would have
>>> had no problem exhibiting it.  In a side-by-side comparison, though, I
>>> simply didn't like it as much as the one I made with a thin coating of
>>> PVA, so -- as stated before-- I'll happily go back to using that.  My
>>> preference is subjective, for sure; I could have shown it to someone
>>> else, and he/she may have liked the other better.
>>> 
>>> And I don't actually find using PVA a problem-- at all.  It's non-
>>> toxic, relatively inexpensive, lasts forever, extraordinarily easy to
>>> use, doesn't leave a shine when I apply it, and takes very little time
>>> to apply (certainly less time than ironing-- though, at this point, I
>>> can barely remember what ironing is like??).
>>> 
>>> Thanks again.
>>> 
>>> Diana
>>> 
>>> On Jan 17, 2012, at 8:35 AM, Peter Blackburn wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Just a brief follow up on this portion of Diana's comment,  "I know
>>>> you're already aware of all this, and this isn't specifically
>>>>> what you asked--  but I also recently printed an image on Fabriano
>>>>> soft-press without sizing all, using what was only in the paper.  It
>>>>> did really well, though I felt the third coat wasn't as "clean" as I
>>>>> would have preferred-- so I just went back to using the PVA.  I just
>>>>> know for sure, using that, that I won't have a problem." My
>>>>> suggestions would be 1) be certain the chosen pigments are capable
>>>>> of printing "clean" on out-of-the-package Fabriano if brilliant
>>>>> highlights are desired. 2) be certain the paper is completely dry
>>>>> between coats, and 3) before applying an additional coat, try
>>>>> ironing the paper with the iron set on a midrange heat selection.
>>>>> AKD is a type of synthetic wax which "melts" under heat. Ironing
>>>>> the paper will restore a bit of smoothness while rejuvenating the
>>>>> residing AKD in the paper.  Cheers everyone!
>>>> Peter J. Blackburn
>>> 
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