Re: Tiny Bubbles In The ... Gum

I use a 3" Hake brush to apply gum emulsion to paper.

See a picture of a Hake brush here:
http://www.dickblick.com/zz054/03/

I put the emulsion in a square tupperware container. Get the brush good and
wet and rapidly apply emulsion in an up/down pattern. Then I quickly go
side to side. Then I take the second (dry) Hake brush and very lightly skim
the surface, to brush out irregularities and bubbles. The trick is to do it
very fast, especially in a desert climate, like here in Wyoming.

This method works very well, even on larger prints to 16x20". I've never
used a foam brush, hog's hair brush or coating rod, so I can't say that what
you're doing is wrong.

I'd use 10ml emulsion for an 8x10. That should be plenty.

Best regards from Big Wonderful Wyoming
Dave Rose
http://www.alternativephotography.com/artists/dave_rose.html

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Koch-Schulte" <mkochsch@shaw.ca>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2005 6:00 PM
Subject: Tiny Bubbles In The ... Gum

> I've just done my first gum prints (yes yes I can hear it...the golf
clap).
> Despite my worst efforts I actually obtained results that were not too
bad.
> A few things have been bothering me though. I was getting quite a bit of
> bubbling in the emulsion as I brushed it on, my coating settled down a bit
> but the unevenness was apparent to me afterword. Is there something I can
do
> or add to my emulsion to counteract this? Is it my brushing technique? My
> brush? I tried using both a foam brush and a hog's hair brush, they seem
> about equal. Using a coating rod was pointless I noticed. Also, for a
> "one-coat" print, generally, how much emulsion should I be using for an
8X10
> print? My starting mix was 6 ml or Gum, 6 ml Potassium Dichromate and
about
> 2 grams of pigment. My estimation is that I used about 7 or 8 mls on my
> first 8X10 print. Too heavy? How do I determine a saturation point for my
> paper (Rives BFK). Do people double coat gum?
>
> ~m
>
>
Received on Sun Aug 28 18:29:25 2005