Re: gum redevelopment

Katharine,
     With a very long soak in ammonia, I find the shadows are....somewhat
moveable with rubbing. The highlights don't budge. And it isn't a pretty
method. So the fact that I am able to get some movement to the shadows
(where there are greater amounts of gum) doesn't worry me in the archival
department...
     That the old timers used this method, that Demachy and others exposed
their prints just to the point of hardening so that they ran to give a water
color smudgy effect, which prints are still around in fine condition today,
leads me to believe that layers even more budgeable than mine are probably
as archival as others.
Chris

> My position on "redevelopment" is that if the gum is properly hardened
> it shouldn't be soluble once dry; to say the same thing another way, if
> it IS soluble when dry, it hasn't been properly hardened. I live in a
> damp climate and th idea of prints made of soluble gum makes me shudder,
> but perhaps that's just me.
> My prints withstand household ammonia as well as boiling water, but as
> Keith says, nothing in a gum print will withstand bleach.
Received on Mon Jul 12 07:52:03 2004