Secondly, lumping the true *wonk* in with the merely sartorially
challenged shows that the dumbing down of America has reached England, or
maybe it started there. Dressing uncool is of course unpardonable
and the sooner we have the death penalty for anorakery the better, but to
cast intellectual expertise in general and the care & feeding of computer
screens in particular as equal to bad dressing indicates once more the
decline of civilisation.
And speaking of the decline of civilisation:
On Wed, 26 Jun 1996, TERRY KING wrote [that he "develops" a gum print in]
> ....two minutes wash in running water under the tap.
In fact I suspect he's baiting me. That's not how you develop a gum print.
That's how an 8-year old takes a bath.
A gum print is developed face down without stirring for a minimum of 30
minutes, preferable an hour, often several hours, and up to 24 can continue
to bring improvement. Which was the problem with the hard gelatine: it
didn't improve no matter how long you developed it: nothing happened. In
fact even when the paper was not exposed at all, the emulsion did not
soak or wash off the paper with the two hard gelatines (porcine from
America, de-ionized from England).
Which I suppose is why you choose "spray and hose" for development,
Terry: You have to.
My interest in the harder gelatin was because -- and in this my finding
agrees with yours Terry -- it doesn't require further hardening. In fact
given a glyoxal bath, it gets, if possible, worse.
N.B. The hardener making matters worse applies only to these "hard"
gelatines. Knox (about 200 bloom, I'm told) stains badly unelss hardened
-- tho the worst staining on Knox was a better print than the "best" of
the hard gelatines.
Yes, a few odds & ends of the hard gelatine tests could have been used to
make a print, but in no case were they better than the Knox-sized paper, and
often not as good as plain unsized.
And, all but one of the near-usuable samples were on the porcine (trefe
product from Amersham in Indiana, but at last a real use for pigskin), only
one on the ossein.
True, it's possible that some special defect in my personal abilities
is at work here, but since the thought of putting my prints under running
tap water makes me about to faint, I think I shall pass on the hard
gelatine from now on, except for carbon printing and gluing print to a
rigid support, about which more in future.
> Because I find it more effective to work from the plate and I keep the liquid
> ossein warm in its water bath.
Terry, I put the beaker in a water bath and dipped into it with the brush.
This was simpler & saved washing a dish.
Judy