This past year, my printing efforts have been run over by home demands and a pandemic. Not that I have been idle altogether. A good portion of my efforts over the past weeks have been focused on the printing itself. I began making gum prints in 1982. I've had a process that worked well for me. A really good process is like a really bad habit. You don't want to give it up. The weeks of testing had to do with finding a printing paper that fit my needs, now. I now use two papers; one for 8x10 gums and another for 11x14 gums. Both do well with multiple soakings without a lot of curling and warping. Turns out, Hahnemuhle Platinum and Fabriano Artistico are the two choices, respectively.
With the paper comes the sizing needs, for the look I am after. There is a delicate balance between having the image remain on the surface sufficiently to show textural detail, and, an image that falls into the paper, fading, without strong edges. That took a couple weeks, testing variations upon the theme. Turns out, the setting I was looking for was for two, one-minute soakings, in a bath of 2 1/2% gelatin sizing. That, after three pre-shrinking dips of a minute or so, at 110º-115ºF, before hanging up to dry, or lay in a drying tray.Altogether that totals to five days of paper preparation before being ready to print. Dedication.
There is a print I am currently working on. An 11x14 gum print "Native Dancers", Arizona tribes dancing at a Pow Wow. This one a second print of the three I have in this series. The first print of the native dancers was a gum over palladium print. The gum print is more complex and trickier to print, than the gum over palladium.
