Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Fri, 23 Jul 1999 15:17:54 -0400 (EDT)
On Fri, 23 Jul 1999, Hamish Stewart wrote:
> >Papers change, a lot. Stonehenge at one time gave me great results.
> >Recent batches had either too little sizing or gave uneven, almost
> >grainy, results.
>
> Interesting what you say. I had this problem around 8 years ago with
> strathmore papers that I had used for gum prints for around 3 years (at
> the time) After successfully using this paper, unsizing for making
> multiple gum prints - something changed. All my other variables remained
> relatively constant. Working space, gum, pigments and time of the year.
> So it seemed that something had changed. Nowdays I size all paper, and I
> notice the differences between various papers. Your comments remind me
> how little I really know about paper and at the same time how important
> this issue is. Yes papers change - a lot, and us poor alt process people
> have to second guess the manufacturers.
David Aldera, paper buyer at NY Central Artists Materials, is very aware
of these changes, not only because he gets feedback from the (mostly
platinum) printers suddenly up the creek, but also because he deals with
the companies that often (but NOT always) admit/explain the changes.
About 3 years ago Stonehenge was reformulated. The "new Stonehenge" may
look like but doesn't work like the old (for my uses no longer useful). As
I recall that was done for competitive price reasons, but equally often
the change is for environmental reasons. That was the case (again as I
recall) with Strathmore, which wasn't allowed to disgorge whatever it was
(acid) from its mills into the nice New England rivers. Platinum printers
and others were completely up the creek. Then after a few years they
re-changed at least their Artists 500 series which I'm told can now be
used for platinum again.
Environmental law was for instance one of the problems caused Palladio to
run out of paper, new methods didn't yield the paper they needed -- and
who knows what lies lie ahead? Which is one reason I advise -- if you find
a paper you really like, lay in all you can afford.
I've done this and then switched paper -- but somehow it does get used,
and better to have extra than be frantic.
Judy
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu Oct 28 1999 - 21:40:37