>Mark, your gum prints on canvas sound fascinating. As I recall you said
>you work up to about 20 by 24...? I'm sure others besides myself are
>wondering how you make contact and what kind of film (lith?).
>
>A sheet of heavy glass over? Do you stretch on wooden stretchers when
>it's finished?
>
>Cheers,
>
>Judy
The film I last worked with in 20 x 24 is Kodak 4125
Professional Copy film.
The film cost $375 for a box of 25 sheets. And now I
can't get any more unless I want to buy a lot of it.
When speaking with Kodak the rep said they only make
it when someone orders 25 boxes or more.
I have use Kodak's comercial film and it works ok.
I haven't tried Comercial Film any larger than 11 x 14.
Yes I use glass. And I use a 400 watt Mercury Vapor Lamp.
The canvas is stretched from the very beginning. Using
registration pins mounted to hard woodstrips of wood
screwed into the stretchers. If the stretchers get wet
a problem can result from swelling and contracting of
the stretcher bars. I make sure the strechers are covered
to the back to prevent such a problem.
I guess I am not so worried about making absolutely
perfect contact when exposing because I don't see
gum printing as a medium in the same way I look at
a Platnum print. Especially if an image is 20 x 24.
I look at a print at twice to three times the length
of the diagonal measurement for the image to resolve.
You might expect broad effects, even Pictorial ones.
I have heard of folks using Kodalith.
When printing on canvas I have noticed that film
grain has tended to be rendered broadly as tones.
This could be one of a number of things. But, what
I think causes this is the process by which I have
made the negatives before entering the digital world.
I made contact positives from 35 mm negatives using
Eastman Fine Grain Release Positive Film. The number
of incarnations probably reduced the contrast of the
grain.
Lately I have been working in collotype.
Here are my current web pages.
They do not feature any alt works, Yet.
http://www.tc.umn.edu/nlhome/m290/morri013/dpap.htm
http://www.tc.umn.edu/nlhome/m290/morri013/maestro.htm
Mark A. Morrill