From: Richard Sullivan (richsul@earthlink.net)
Date: 08/03/03-07:49:14 AM Z
Christine,
I see your point as you describe it but sheese, what a way to size.
How about just brushing on a layer of gelatin?
Speaking of sizing I was working on an idea about 10 year ago on a quick
sizing system. I dropped it as I'll explain later.
Scotchguard!
This was the old solvent based stuff. Full strength it is ridiculous as
nothing sticks to the paper and it acts like a coating of oil. I was down
to a few drops per 100 ml of solvent which was 3,3,3 trichloroethane or dry
cleaning solvent. I was getting mixed results at the time but I probably
needed to go to an even weaker dilution. The stuff is absurdly potent.
The solvent based Scotchguard consumer product went off the market in
Californis due to the solvent and could only be bought in 100 gallon lots
that were being sold to auto manufacturers etc. Trichloroethane also was
banned in California. The neat thing was you could dip the paper in the
tray of solvent and SG mix and hold it up and it dried in about 10 seconds
with not wrinkle or anything like that. The fumes made your head spin too.
The fumes were not explosive though.
If anyone picks up on this let me know how it works.
--Dick
At 09:11 AM 8/3/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> >
> > Ok you then agree that pigment stain is a function of sizing?
> > Why not size? When one considers the work one goes to to make a gum print
>a
> > bit more time to size the paper seems to be well worth it. No one I know
>of
> > makes gums because they're easy, or do they?
>
>Caveat: all the notes, below, are IMP! In my practice.
>
>I agree that one reason for pigment stain can be related to sizing, but for
>me, pigment stain has been too much color load in the gum with only a few
>colors--quinacridones and thalos and carbon black. The amount of those
>colors I had in my gum was exorbitant and I had to back off not because of
>staining issues but because the mix was too saturated a chroma.
>
>I do think that sometimes "pigment stain" gets confused with overexposure.
>If you bake on a coat the color veils the highlights as well and won't
>budge. The Tokyo Morning image, for instance, on Ed Buffaloe's website, is
>the "olden days" technique of what was called a "tonal" layer--where you do
>a long exposure first highlight layer with a mild pigment load to tone the
>whole print--in that image's case it is yellow. It's not stain, it is
>overexposure.
>
>To answer your question of why not size, it didn't occur to me not to size
>until this list. I had been taught a laborious sizing process that made gum
>printing appeal to very few die hard students. We tray sized in a hot
>bathroom with gelatin dripping everywhere, a hot plate plugged in to keep
>the stuff warm, you really had to do it naked to put up with the process.
>I'm exaggerating, but only slightly.
>
>Then I finally read the Livick book that I had on my shelf for years, and in
>it he said that there are papers that don't need size. When bringing it up
>on the list, certain gum printers on the list also said they NEVER size, and
>these are also ones who never have staining issues. Livick, when sizing,
>does brush his on, so that in itself would save immense time, and there are
>those including Livick who do not tray size because of other problems that I
>won't elaborate here.
>
>Bingo, I thought! I also found throughout literature from the 1800's on
>that not all sized.
>
>With sizing you get a higher contrast image (a "harder" image they would say
>in the old books) and more chance of the coating sloughing off with
>underexposure (which would be aided by Miracle Muck I would think, or
>greater exposure, or making sure to size not too much). I don't have to
>worry about these problems. However, if I were doing the many multiple
>coats with thin layers that some gum printers do, you'd almost have to size
>I would think. I use more pigment in my mix, up to as high as 6g/12 ml, and
>would not need to multiple coat that many times. I only need, in fact, to
>multiple coat if I want to vary the color--which I always do.
>
>It's a big step to save time on, if eliminated, for sure. Think of
>this--whip out a piece of Rives BFK, pigment/gums all mixed into little
>nalgene bottles--50 of those little bottles with colors of the rainbow
>lining the walls--a bottle of saturated dichromate all ready to go, a couple
>little petri dishes, a beaker of water to stick your brush in, and a 1/4
>tsp measure. I just come into my room, plop 1/4 tsp of pigmented gum on a
>petri dish, 1/4 tsp of dichromate of choice, mix with a martini stirring
>rod, brush with a $4 hake, and go. If I want to lessen my pigment load, I
>plop in straight gum arabic and a drop of the colored pigmented gum. All
>done in a normally lit room, and aided with a hair drier.
>
> > I am sure you have read Bright Earth as you seem to be quite up on your
> > sources.
>
>NOOO, oh no, another book I want...thanx for the source.
>Chris
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