Re: unhardened gelatin size for gum

On Apr 21, 2006, at 1:11 PM, Judy Seigel wrote:

> On Fri, 21 Apr 2006, Christina Z. Anderson wrote:
>
>
>> Ok ok so I bit on the deionized 250 bloom ossein gelatin.
>>
>> Bought some on the recommendation that using this wonderful
>> gelatin would allow me to use it as a size unhardened for gum.
>>
>
> I simply would not say "I told you so," because it's not in my
> vocabulary... But I have at odd times since 1998 mentioned that I
> myself could not get a continuous tone print on the deionized
> ossein (which as I recall Bostick & Sullivan was selling at the
> time, tho I got mine airmailed from old Albion).
>
> However, a caveat -- I have seen some lovely gum prints made on
> unhardened gelatin, by an assistant of Ernestine Rubin, and as I
> recall Sarah Van Keuren has a section by her (name not forthcoming
> this minute) in her Non-Silver Manual. There is some staining, the
> whites aren't ENTIRELY clear, but the whole works; she's adapted
> her style and procedure to fit and they're robust, beautiful gums.

And I did nice tricolor gums on unhardened (Knox) gelatin, until I
realized I didn't need to use any size at all. Categorical
statements about what works and what doesn't work for gum are almost
always contradicted by someone's prints, which is why I think drawing
too general conclusions from personal observations is rarely a good
idea.
Katharine
Received on Fri Apr 21 18:39:05 2006