Re: 4 gums

Peter Charles Fredrick (pete@fotem.demon.co.uk)
Sun, 18 Aug 1996 13:17:59 +0000

On Sun, 18 Aug 96 Judy Seigel wrote - Re testing gums

Dear present & future gummists:

>Having on hand 4 kinds of gum arabic<

> papers included Strathmore Bristol drawing, Zerkal, Lana, Coventry
Rag, Hahnemuhl Merten Spiess, Copperplate, and litho cover, and a few
others lying around (yes it was an odd lot) with a couple of different
sizes as well as just the fresh paper, 101 samples in all<

Hi Judy

Quite a Herculean effort. These results highlight the often frustrating,
fascinating nature of this " Will of the Wisp" process.I am of the opinion
that to test any of the Alt/photo processes the aims should be kept simple,
one must not include to many variables, perhaps if you had chosen one paper
, and tested your four gums on it
then a simple authoritive statement could be made, that would be of
immediate use to us all. I think sometimes you work far to hard Judy, and
get buried under all the information you uncover.

>The "best" gum on one paper wasn't on another<

>Is that perfectly clear?<

No it is not clear, as we do not know which gum worked best on which paper.

> I'm not going to test any other combos. <

Come on Judy how many times have I read that.The truth is that you cant
help yourself , you are a self confessed process freak like most us . Also
which is far more important, you tirelessly pursue the truth.The
contribution that you have made to this list is truly massive and of great
value, and has come about in the in pursuit of this holy grail.

Best wishes

pete

My motto " If you wont the best, you have got to test " :-)