FotoDave@aol.com
Mon, 01 Nov 1999 21:56:05 -0500 (EST)
In a message dated 11/1/99 9:37:32 AM Pacific Standard Time,
jseigel@panix.com writes:
> However it is also said that gelatin being an organic compound, a food, in
> fact, will invite tiny organisms to lunch if not hardened. I haven't seen
> it happen, but then all my gelatin is hardened... Conservators also warn
> against unhardened gelatin.
I agree that it is best the harden gelatin even just for the reason above.
The cases that I have seen were gum arabic rather than gelatin, but I am sure
the organisms (and large organisms too like cockroaches) love jello as well
as gum drops.
I believe I have mentioned that one time I cleaned the brushes of my teacher
in Chinese painting, but one of them wasn't all cleaned (that was when I
lived in a hot and humid country, and the roaches there were big too). Over
the night, the roaches came and ate the leftover gum in the brush and ruined
his favorite brush. Also, he has a big painting of his teacher which has a
kaleidoscope type of tear. The reason was because he stored the folded
painting (on rice paper) in a closet, and roaches came and ate the gum. Since
the painting was folded, when you unfold it, there is the kaleidoscope design.
Another story (which is a little gross) was when I studied Chinese brush
painting, one evening I finished my painting and left the color, brushes,
etc. on the table. When I returned to the table later, I saw a big roach
there. I tried to kill it, but he ran to the ceiling and I couldn't reach it,
so I got a can of insect killer and spray on it. The chemical got on it, and
it went crazy, made circles, and then bzzzz, excreted a lot of white gummy
stuff. I was so puzzled, but when I went back to the table again, I found
that I had a lot of wet white gouache left on the table ....
Oh, what does this have to do with alt. photo? I guess my suggestion is to
harden your gelatin. I have read some photo/darkroom books in which the
authors say that if you are using rotary processing (instead of manual/tray)
to process your film, there is really *no* reason to harden the gelatin
because you can't scratch it. I guess the authors didn't realize that damage
to gelatin can occur not only during wet processing but can also occur later,
maybe even years later ....
Dave S
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