From: Andre Fuhrmann (Andre.Fuhrmann@uni-konstanz.de)
Date: 09/20/01-01:46:39 AM Z
Sorry for being a bit late with contributing to this thread. Perhaps
all that needs to be said has been said already -- in which case: my
apologies.
Gum printing has started to work for me only after I have turned to
using powdered pigments. With powdered pigments I never had troubles
with clearing highlites, development was quicker and much better to
control. I retired my tubes of ready-made water colours after I had
read Heinrich K"uhn's "Technik der Lichtbildnerei" (192+). K"uhn was
a key figure in German photography at the beginning of the 20th
century and a master gum printer. Some credit him with having
invented multiple gum prints. Stieglitz' Camera Works features a
large number of his prints. K"uhn used only powdered earth pigments
for a variety of (good) reasons , perhaps the principal reason being
that they are _not_ as finely ground as the ready-made pastes. This
was his secret (made public) to success: too finely ground pigments
means stained highlites and less control over contrast during
development. So if you think of using powdered pigments, don't spoil
their principal advantage by spending hours with grinding!
I bought a supply of powdered pigments from Kremer that will last me
for a lifetime. A mortar and a pestle is all you need to grind (in a
few minutes) the pigments to a serviceable degree. Some pigments
even don't need grinding. In those cases I use mortar & pestle only
as a mixing device.
For those who read German I include a link to the relevant chapter
from K"uhn's book:
http://www.uni-konstanz.de/FuF/Philo/Philosophie/Fuhrmann/themen/kuehn.pdf
BTW, K"uhn's book, long out of print, is perhaps still the best
source in German on ALT processes. It is much sought after and sells
between DM 80 and 120 at antiquarian book stores in Germany; see
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