Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Fri, 15 Jan 1999 02:51:55 -0500 (EST)
On Thu, 14 Jan 1999 FotoDave@aol.com wrote:
> But with Canford, the 1 to 1.5% gelatine + alum sizes very well even up to 3
> coats although I will use 3% in the future. You still have my gum print,
> right? Or did you throw it away? ;) The one with tulip and a sharp bunch of
> leaves behind... that was printed on Canford with the 1.5% size. Isn't the
> highlight still quite nicely white? (I don't even have a copy here, but my
> memory says that it clears pretty well).
It, along with half the paper on the eastern seaboard, sits in one of the
25 folders on my table. If I don't finish the sorting, I won't be able
to fit on the next 25 folders for issue #3... My recollection of the print
is that it is both finely detailed and grainy, almost like the Bruce
Davidson grain described last week. Which is to say, it could be flecky &
not show. Though I doubt it Dave, you wouldn't stand for it.
> Recently I have been thinking about another crazy idea. Paper that has not
> been sized will work like a blotter. If it doesn't, it must have been sized
> (internally or externally). I read that some size materials such as starch
> does not respond well to hardening, but often gelatine is used in sizing.
> Since Canford already work well for me for one coat, that means it has sizing
> already. Does that mean that I can simply harden it without any gelatin coat?
It's another variable. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I think
Tom was the one tried it last year. I followed his example. Sometimes it
worked & sometimes it didn't. A matter of the particular combo. I myself
am coming to the (reluctant) conclusion after some more noodling around
this month with sized & unsized in several papers, then a couple of
non-traditional sizes, that plain old gelatin & glyoxal are more trouble
than, say, diluted acrylic gloss medium, but work over a wider spectrum of
conditions, and work better -- so definitely less trouble in the long run.
This, I'll add, is for digital, which works differently from contone,
hence the shaking loose of prior certainties. (Didn't try Joe's rabbit
skin glue yet, though, that's next & last.)
> I don't have glyoxal nor formaldehyde since I never needed it (I still use the
> food alum that I bought about 20 years ago when I size my riced paper for
> painting). Would you be so kind in helping me doing a test? I will send you a
> few cut sheets of Canford and Mi-teintes that I have here (so that we are
> checking exactly the same thing), and could you just soak it in glyoxal as you
> would normally harden your paper? Then I will run some stain tests and report
> back to you and/or the list.
I can either do that, or send you an ounce of glyoxal for your own bath...
as you like.
> Of course sizing with gelatine is not that big a deal either, but saving a
> step is saving a step, and I don't like the heating, cooking part....
Oh really -- if the space-cadet undergraduates can do it, can it be so
bad? Get a hot plate. (But if you *cook* it, you're in for some
disappointment.)
cheery Judy
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