Re: speckling on BFK

<Judy said> I had taught a gum workshop at ICP about 10 years ago, and a
month later
> got a frantic call from one of the students: Her gum prints were coming
> out all speckled. She couldn't get any image at all, just speckling. So I
> told her to come over and we spent the afternoon, testing her paints on
> her paper, her paints on my paper, her gum on her paper, her gum on my
> paper, etc.... Though it didn't happen that neatly, but was some time
> before we formulated that method. Ultimately it became clear that ANY
> paints and any gum speckled on her paper. And not on mine. Finally, she
> had a thought: She'd gone to her home in Vermont and gelatin sized the
> paper there. While the paper (Rives BFK, BTW) was out all over the house
> freshly gelatined to dry, she noticed a strange kind of pollen in the
> air... settling as a yellow powder over everything.
> She sized new paper in town and had no further problems.
> cheers,
> Judy

Hmmm...very possible. It was paper I sized outside, but I brushed on the
sizing and immediately brought it inside to dry. For sure, the top most
microscopic fibers did not get sized, and that is exactly where the stain
occurred. It was definitely not mottling/grainy spots that occur sometimes
in the valleys of the paper, due to other reasons, but on the very minute
high points on the paper. It looked like a robin egg. Only on the Rives,
because of its absorbency. I should've given Rives 2 coats.
Chris
Received on Wed May 5 02:45:37 2004