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11/26/2003 Entry: "gumming up the works"

Cool and cloudy today, so I took advantage of having the day off from work to give my old nemesis, gum bichromate, another try. My first attempts failed miserably, so I wasn't too hopeful for the results today. An experienced gum printer can take advantage of an incredible control over the process by manipulating variables such as the amount of pigment added to the gum arabic, the amount of dichromate sensitizer, exposure time, paper, sizing, development time, etc. Of course all these variables are just more things to go wrong for a beginner, so I was particularly thrilled when (after a few test strips) I was able to get a half decent image out of the process.

I'm far from ready to tackle tricolor gum prints just yet but this simple single coated image is a start.