RE: One coat gum - first one for me - how is it for you?

Hi David and all...

A couple of comments that may be of use although I haven't seen the print
in question (apologies, but my dead browser connection is causing me more
grief than that, if you could believe !).

First, about applying the emulsion: I myself found using a roller to
apply gum emulsion was Ansel Adams' revenge... it's a wasteful mess, at
least IME. Most gumprinters I'm familiar with follow two principles --
spread a NOT TOO THICK emulsion as quickly as possible before it has time
to set or get sticky (I do that with a foam brush, which is much more
flexible and easy to use & wash than a gum roller, tho you want the
flexible foam kind with the wood handle, not the one with red plastic, a
nasty imitation foam) then QUICKLY and lightly whisk with a DRY hake brush
to smooth.

Pictorialists used other kinds of brushes (they mentioned by animal, which
I forget), but the cheap hake works very well and cheap enough to always
have a dry spare. If it sheds, work some glue into the base of the
bristles.

As we know, in gum every variable (including the color of your toothbrush)
affects all other variables, but for more contrast I think first of a
higher concentration of size, or maybe just another coat of size.

Longer exposure enabling a longer soak increases contrast as well...

As for the floodlight being good for gum printing, one shouldn't argue
with another person's success of course, but when I tried gum with
floodlights, approximately 150 years ago, I found the heat tended to fog
the print, and of course lower contrast. You might therefore aim a small
fan at the exposing print if you haven't already.

PS. Demachy has a nice couple of passages on his personal whisking method
for smoothing the emulsion... something like whisking dust off the piano,
tho I reconstitute from memory...

In any event, congratulations. Once past the early hurdles it really is
the most flexible and addictive kind of print there is...

Judy
Received on 06/07/06-02:11:24 PM Z