Grafist@aol.com
Date: 02/15/02-03:19:27 PM Z
In a message dated 15/02/02 06:29:28 GMT Standard Time, jseigel@panix.com
writes:
> Actually there is another difficulty-- it's the enormous variability. You
> really don't know in advance what a "good gum print" looks like.
......................................
Hi Judy, We have a shop here called " The Early Learning Centre" for kids.
They sell a range of powder pigment paints and also ready mixed paints in the
primary colours plus black. I have tried most of these in my Direct Carbon
experiments and eventually discarded them in favour of pure carbon black
powder. But since Gum discussion keeps coming up I back tracked yesterday
and coated a few pieces of sized paper with a mixture of 2% Ammonium
Dichromate solution and a few squirts of "ready mix" black as I had realized
for ages from the smell that it contained gum arabic. Could I call this a
Gum process? Or, a variation of it? The brush strokes were streaky but I gave
the sized paper a deep black total covering. The paper was adhered to plexi
glass....I stick most papers on a temp support. This morning when the paper
was completely dry gave it an exposure of fifteen minutes through my negative
of the beach bum ( the one I sent you so long ago ). The results I got far
exceeded my expectations after soaking and "developing" as I would with
Direct Carbon. i.e. 10 minute cold. 10 minute @ 35 deg C. 10 minute cold.
Then clearing with sawdust soup. Good contrast range. Deep blacks and
acceptable mid tones. I use very thin 100 gsm Ingres type writing paper
(laid) for experiments. It is cheap and extremely stable i.e. doesnt break
up. I should add that my reason for not using gum with my Direct Carbon
process was that it did seem to flake off easily as it did on this most
recent occasion. My remedy:- Increase the exposure time and increase the
second water soak temperature from 35 to 40 deg C. Several questions could
come from this description. Some will be answered but some will not.......
Stay cool John
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : 03/08/02-09:45:21 AM Z CST