I felt tempted to reply 'It's one 'ell of a goy'.
No it is an office glue made from PVA with added surfactants, to make it spread
more easily and colouring to make it look more like gum arabic. It is marketed
in the UK and Europe, I do not know about North America.
It is faster and more consistent than gum arabic in gum printing but is more
shiny.
I have just read 'A Poor Man's Fresson'
This spell checker cannot spell ! ! ! even with it's UK add on and I do not mean
Fresson.
I hope that this is not picking at scabs but if you not harden the first coat of
gum first, how does it provide any protection under the denser parts of the
negative.
I harden my dichromated Gloy first by exposing it to light and washing it. This
will give far more consistent results than leaving the dichromate out at the
'sizing' stage.
This is one of a number of variations that in the nineteenth century would have
earned a name. I call this one (KIng, It does not like King-- probably does not
drink tea either) Kingy Thingy V. Joyce Peck will not let me use such names for
the Australian exhibition so I have called my use of acrylics in gum,
acrylochrome; a variation on kallitype with beautiful blacks, agferox ( pace
AGFA); and a sort of chrysotype,pterigold. I call this size version gloyking,
(yes spell checker, it's a new word with connotations of pleasant naughtiness).
if they do not work I call them glums.
As gum arabic is diluted 50/50 with water, after removing the camel dung, to get
a !7 degree Baume solution,( best for coating the paper if you are not going to
use a size) what is a 60% solution and how is that thin ?
Did I not run trhat workshop at Richmond that Pete mentioned.. The man who took
a week to prepare his paper for gum prints was a good example of those who live
in limbo overcomplicating things because there is not the exchange of ideas
that, for example, this list brings.
Gum printing is easy with gum, Gloy and albumen, all with continuous tone
negatives on water-colour paper. I have used whole egg but it needs plasticised
paper and tone separations to make it work without flaking. I gave up
photo-screen because I preferred the subtlety of continuous gradations.
As to numbers of coatings. More than one coat gives subtlety of tone and
gradation and, most important of all, colour.
Am I being an old fuddy duddy to want that in my gum prints ?
Terry King.