I've never tried gum printing, however I do want to try PVOH printing soon using this technique so I have also been doing a little research. My understanding of why this doesn't work so well for gum is because it melts too easily when a new layer is applied on top, so the act of brushing on the new layer is enough to start melting the layer below and then the brush mixes the two layers so you don't get the same distinction between the different pigment loadings that you want.
I'm not sure if there are ways to prevent this with gum, I know in Calvin's gum video for example he talks about having to spray gum (without dichromate) onto the paper using a spray gun to prevent brush strokes from damaging previous layers to give the highest possible quality. I wonder if it's possible to use this spraying technique (presumably brush-sensitising with dichromate after drying) for a monochrome print to build tonal layers. That might stop the layers mixing together as there's no mechanical brushing action any more.
I did try coating all three layers once and then expose with subsequent negatives for each colour, It was a complete disaster and I am not sure one would get acceptable results
Thank you Andrew for your response. I have come across similar comments about the quick solubility of gum which may render this approach unsuitable for gum prints. However, I tend to get confused for the following reasons / observations -
1. In normal Gum Print, there is development after each coat and after the print dries up, it is coated again. Here too, we are coating a dry print which has an underlying hardened gum layer. The same logic would have then rendered multi layer gum prints untenable in the first place - this is one area of confusion.
2. For this approach, I see that the development time after the final exposure is really long. In fact the print I shared had been in the water bath for more than 7 hours while normal gum prints would develop within 30 - 40 minutes in general. Had gum been that soluble, the development itself would have been shorter.
Any thoughts on where my understanding is going wrong?
I've tried it with both gum and PMF. Both were disasters. I was brushing on the layers, which would melt underlying layers. Maybe Calvin's method of spraying works better?
That's a fantastic print - regardless of how it was made, but given how you did it, it's even more of an accomplishment!
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