From: TERRY KING, 101522,2625
TO: alt-photo, INTERNET:listproc@vast.unsw.edu.au
DATE: 05/02/96 11:15
RE: Copy of: Paper for platinum and gum and size
Comments from Dick Holland and Carol Hudson.
I have been using Fabriano Artistico NOT for cyanotype, salt and kallitype and
HOT for platinum/palladium for
ten years now. I have got clear differentiation of every step on AGFA twenty
step step wedges or all twenty one steps on the Stouffer product for platinum
/palladium. There are eighteen clear steps on examples in front of me as I
write which were prepared to compare two year old and new home made ferric
oxalate.. I also use the HOT paper for gum.
All these papers I use at 300 gsm for lateral stability. My own tests, which
have been proven in practice for some years, show better results from these
papers than from those more usually recommended. Some have suggested that there
is inconsistency in performance from the Fabriano papers but I have not found it
so. I also use the HOT paper for gum. The Italian equivalents for NOT and HOT
are patinata and satinata. I also use Waterford HOT pressed as it comes in
larger sizes enabling 20x24 inch platinum prints on 3 foot by 4 foot six paper.
I was going to say metre by one and a half metres but it is naughty to mix the
conventions. Waterford is made by GP Inveresk at their Wells paper mill in
Somerset where Bockingford paper is made which I have found produces high
success rates for beginners in gum printing given its tooth. All these papers
are mould made, have neutral PH and are appropriately sized. The weight of these
papers is 140 lb which is 300 gsm as near as dammit. Be careful not to order the
300 lb Bockingford as it expensive but lovely stuff.
As to sizing, I very rarely use a hardener but when I do start with a size I
find that ammonium and potassium dichromate work very well as hardeners with
gum, Gloy and gelatine. Remember dichromates are also used as mordants. What
news is there of tests with dichromates and dyestuiffs on materials made from
natural fibers to produce photographic images.
As to Gloy Gum it is PVA with added colour and surfactants. I started using it
ten years ago when I found that an art school where I was to give a workshop had
no gum arabic. It works well both as a size and as the medium for gum. I have in
front of me tests on Bockingford showing eight stages of the wedge for one coat
and fourteen for two. The inference is that just as good gradation in continuous
tone can be obtained with Gloy in gum printing as can be obtained from gum
arabic, egg white and whole egg. Mike Ware is quite right to suggest that we
should not rely too much on proprietary products as they can be changed at will
by the manufacturer; but so can paper as I have found to my intense frustration
and cost. Use it while we've got it and if it goes, go back to gum.
I have had the pleasure of working with Peter Marshall and Carol Hudson in one
way or another for nearly twenty years now and had the excitement of meeting
Judy Seigel last Sunday for the first time. I have tried to e-mail her three
times since but am getting something wrong.
Last summer I ran the hand photo-gravure workshop at which Peter Frederick was a
participant. Peter has very kindly asked me to do it again this summer. Our
objective was to obtain a gravure print which could be taken as a platinum
print. The students did it.
I promise not to go on like this again, but please excuse the initial enthisiasm
of a 'newbie' who has only been on the net since last Monday.
Terry King 101522.2625@compuserve.com