RE: Gum print formaline

Hi Chris,

>
> We had a Mark Nelson PDN (digineg) workshop here at Clemson this weekend,
> despite the ice storm which cut out half the group the second day. Don
> Bryant came from Georgia. Don, Sandy King, Sam Wang, Mark Nelson, and
> myself and 9 others all in the same room! We should have had an APIS.
>

Mark's workshop was enlightening for me. I'm glad I came prepared with
prints and curves in hand.

> Don and I spent the night together--er--at my house (ha! thought I'd
> liven
> up the list with a rumor!

Chris was a gracious hostess, she even sliced strawberries for my breakfast
Saturday morning.

> he saw my yellowed papers, and didn't think they were ugly (the
> Extra
> White Artistico becomes a creamy ivory), so you could certainly still use
> the yellowed paper as a cream paper.
>

I suppose I expected a bright yellow color rather than an off white or
natural white color.

> Don also brought me a bunch of his Rives glyoxal sized papers here for me
> to
> check out and work with. His paper looks darn good to me, except for a
> little yellowing in drips on the edge of the paper. That I can live with.
>

The yellowing on my Rives was only apparent at the corners where the gelatin
had formed a drop while drying. And not on all pieces showed this. However
the yellow was much more intense than Chris's samples.

I do have a question for Chris though. How do you hang your paper to dry?
>From a single corner leaving a corner pointing straight down or along the
top edge like a towel or sheet?
 
> One thing I was thinking about with sizing: I think I mentioned a while
> back a speckling stain on the third coat (magenta) on glyoxal sized Rives
> BFK paper. Don had that exact thing on his gum prints on Rives. I just
> want to throw this observation out there: with glyoxal, the gelatin feels
> "gritty" to me on the surface of the paper.

I'm putting baking soda in the glyoxal, could that be the source of the
gritty feeling. My Rives showed stain on both the yellow and magenta layers,
clearing was quite difficult regardless of the temperature of the water or
the length of soaking. Prints soaked over night still wouldn't clear well
and had heavy speckling, especially with the magenta layer.

> With glut, it feels smooth.

Are you using baking soda with the glut Chris?

> Don is going to test glut shortly. Don, you are going to coat some Rives
> with it, I hope?

Yes I will be using Rives and Fabriano EW. The problem now is when I can
test the glut, since the weather is not cooperating. I definitely don't wish
to hang glut coated paper inside to dry, especially since my wife suffers
from asthma.

As soon as the spring thaw shows itself I'll size and harden paper. In the
meantime I'll start preshrinking sheets.

Don
Received on Sun Jan 30 20:28:10 2005