By cosmic coincidence the NY Times had an article today about the "new"
use of jello-type desserts by haute cuisinaires. The jello-mold with
marshmallows we made as brides to serve with our tunafish casseroles ,
recently derided by our sophisticated children, are now once more le
dernier cri. I mention this also (besides remembering with nostalgia such
delicacies as lime jello mold made with ginger ale and grated carrots)
because there was a sidebar about Japanese gelatine, a seaweed or agar
agar derivative.
A source for this product was listed, which I can find if someone is
interested before Friday when the newspapers are recycled, but the mention
reminds me that a student of mine tried agar agar as size for gum printing
a couple of years ago & the print was totally fogged, that is, nothing
cleared. I know enough now to speculate that some other gum-pigment-paper
combination might have worked better, but my own experience suggests that
just the paper from the factory with no added size will do better. True,
you can use a gum arabic size (as I recall, that's what Phil Davis
mentioned in his article on gum printing last year), but the fact remains
that nearly every paper sold for artists' purposes (and most stationery
purposes as well) already has gelatine in it. Except Buxton, for you folks
in England. That's sized with Aquapel, which is a synthetic of some sort.
I tried it, BTW, for a gum size, and found it *very* unsatisfactory. The
space between so sized the paper was totally water resistant to so dilute
it had no effect was not measurable, at least not by me.
Luis's rundown on the places you *are* using gelatine is quite complete,
but perhaps he didn't go as fully as he might into the uses in
medicine -- from being sprinkled on surgical gloves, to being sprinkled on
you if you're bleeding to death. And from one end of the body to the
other, gelatine encases everything from pills and tablets to
suppositories.
As for the ethics of "digital" photography, I'm waiting for someone (and
you know who you are!) to make a post about the environmental ravages of
every step of computer manufacture...
cheers,
Judy