From: Lukas Werth (lukas.werth@rz.hu-berlin.de)
Date: 09/21/01-02:20:25 AM Z
Just for the record: I have several pigments from Kremer, Germany, and I
also tend to fill my stock from them. They sell a card with their earth
pigments on pieces of paper; very helpful.
I prepare the pigments in the following way: I have - I hope this is the
right term for the item - a glass muller with which I mix on a sheet of
glass the pigment with gum arabic. The key seems to be to get a thick paste
which I then, with the help of a razor blade and/or a small spade, move
over the edge of the glass sheet into a small, wide-necked bottle or a
small jar - whatever, it should have an air-tight lid. I have not tried
this with every pigment, but the ones I prepeared in this way so far stay
in emulsion. Sometimes, after using the bottle, I just put a drop of
distilled water on the paste. For use, I take an amount of it out with the
stick of a small brush and smear it on the brush I use for mixing the
pigment with the casein (my colloid).
My burned sienna from Kremer, for instance, is noticably coarser than the
one in the tube of W&N - on the whole, it works well, but for some
applications I also prefer the finer pigment.
Spinel black is my black of choice.
Lukas
At 09:46 20.09.01 +0200, you wrote:
>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
>
>http://www.zvab.com
>
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