As perhaps some may recall a while back I asked for advice about
varnishing gum prints, & received a couple of excellent suggestions,
which I have gotten ingredients for, am testing, will report on. But
meanwhile I came across this passage in the Puyo/Demachy I have been
kvelling and kvetching (really old French terms) about, and
couldn't wait to send it up the flagpole. I'll copy the paragraph in
French (and honest folks, is it really so bad without the accents?, think
how happy this would make students world-wide), then my translation of
this miracle of hope and observation:
He's talking about gum being better even than
"une epreuve tiree sur <<l'Artistique>> [which I hope someone will also
define] qui possede beaucoup de fleur. A un moment donne l'eau a
disparu, s'est evaporee, dans les blancs et les regions claires; mais il
en reste dans les regions sombres, emprisonnee encore a l'interieur de la
couche, entre la superficie de la couch et la surface du papier. Les
blancs sont mats, les noirs un peu luisants. L'epreuve passe a ce moment
par un etat optimum. Le sechage complet compromet un peu cet etat, par un
phenomene analogue a celui de l'embu, surtout dans les epreuves a la
gomme surexposees. Un passage *au vernis Soehnee* pour aquarelle,
fortement etendu d'alcool, ameliore alors l'aspect de l'epreuve; car ce
vernis traverse le papier dans les blancs, ne comproment donc pas leur
matite, et en meme temps se loge dans les noirs et leur redonne de la
transparence."
And a digression to say if anyone can give me an equivalentt English term
for "fleur" a print, I'd be obliged..... OK, the gist:
.. In a moment the water disappears, evaporated from the whites and clear
areas; but it remains in the darks, caught inside the layer, between the
skin of the coating and the surface of the paper. The whites are mat, the
darks somewhat glossy. The print at this moment is in its optimum state.
Compete drying compromises this optimum, by a phenomenon analogous to
clouding [fogging?] especially in overexposed prints. Once over with
Soehnee varnish for watercolor, well diluted with alcohol, improves the
look of the print; this varnish [ignores?] the whites, not compromising
their matness, at the same time it sticks in the darks and returns their
transparency.
To coin another phrase -- a consumation devoutly to be wished... And I
must add, this is the most acute observation of process from wet to dry in
a gum print I've ever seen. (Well of course it's the only one, but it is
perfect.)
Hopefully,
Judy