From: Gary Nored (gnored@centurytel.net)
Date: 09/01/03-05:58:50 PM Z
Having made my first acceptable single-coat gum print a
few weeks earlier with out local alt-process group, I boldly
decided to take the process home and start playing with
it. I used the same paper (Fabriano Artistico), the same
Windsor Newton lamp black water color paint and a
saturated solution of ammonium dichromate in the same
proportions as before.
The first prints were terrible -- kinda like Ed Buffaloe's
famous black prints, but with some hint of image. I
thought the problem might be "staining" so I decided to
try sizing the paper with gum arabic.
I coated several sheets of paper with gum/dichromate
solution, omitting the ink. To my surprise, this paper
didn't come out white after exposing to sun and washing --
it comes out a nice caramel-brown color. Further
experiments yielded nice photograms of white and brown
(better than the prints with pigment in them).
So now I have a zillion questions. A few of them are:
Is the gum itself supposed to turn brown like that?
Is there a way of hardening the gum without creating the
brown color?
Is printer's gum suitable for sizing paper? (I used Varn's
14 Baume 100% Gum Arabic solution which I bought at a
printer's supply house.)
For that matter, is printer's gum really suitable for making
gum prints?
TIA
Gary Nored
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