Tag Archives: Diana Bloomfield

Tri-Color Gum Printing with Diana H. Bloomfield

We have a full class of students.
Please call or email to be placed on a wait-list.
480.361.1118 – info@artintersection.com

In this intensive two-day workshop, we will learn how to print in the 19th century photographic process of gum bichromate. Using color separation negatives, we’ll learn how to make multilayered, tri-color gum bichromate prints on watercolor paper.

After mixing an emulsion of watercolor pigment, potassium dichromate, and gum arabic, this mixture is brushed on watercolor paper, dried, and by placing a negative on top it is exposed to UV light.

We then ‘develop’ the prints in plain tap water. Layers are built by repeated coatings and careful registration of negatives until a full, rich image is achieved.

We will also explore one-coat, gum over cyanotype, made using black and white negatives.

No prior experience with this type of printing is necessary, so join us for two days of fun and experimentation with this interpretive, intuitive, and infinitely creative photographic printing process. Once you experience the joy of gum printing, you will never be the same!

The making of digital negatives will be shown, but for the workshop itself, please send four color image files (300 dpi at 10” on the long side), and one black and white image file if you would like, at least one week prior to the workshop.

Please complete the WORKSHOP SIGN UP FORM attached below before payment!

Learn more about Diana on her website Diana H. Bloomfield.

Thank you to our sponsor Hahnemühle.

BK Skaggs, Shari Trennert, and Maylee Noah rinse their prints while others hang to dry. These prints show the first pass with the cyan layer.

Tri-color Gum Workshop-2622_800px

Finished prints by Maylee Noah showing one-color, two-color, and tri-color prints.

Workshop

Please complete this workshop sign up form before payment! This helps us stay in contact with you as well as update you with any information you may need before the workshop.

Tri-Color Gum Workshop With Diana Bloomfield

This two day workshop of tri-color gum printing was a huge success, each and every student that attended left with beautiful images. Thank you to Diana Bloomfield for teaching this amazing process! To learn more about upcoming workshops make sure to check out our Events tab.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Event Recaps | Comments Off on Tri-Color Gum Workshop With Diana Bloomfield

Diana Bloomfield Teaches Tri-Color Gum Bichromate Workshop

This past weekend of September 12 and 13 Art Intersection was bursting with color! Tri-color gum bichromate, that is. We had the great pleasure of hosting a two-day, immersive workshop in the process taught by Diana Bloomfield, a master gum printer especially known for her tri-color technique. Ten participants learned about this fascinating 19th-century process that includes mixing together gum arabic, potassium dichromate, and watercolor pigments, then hand-coating that mixture on paper, exposing their paper under a digital negative in UV light, and washing out the print in water to “develop” it.

Diana Bloomfield explains her technique for mixing the gum emulsion on Day 1.

Workshop participants look on as Diana coats a sheet of paper with the light-sensitive gum mixture she’s made.

Any color watercolor pigment can be used, but this tri-color process involves making three separate coating and exposure runs with cyan, magenta, and yellow pigments individually to get a full-color final print.

Tri-color Gum Workshop-2597_800px

Armed with coffee, the participants listen as Diana explains the basics of color balancing for a natural-looking print at the start of Day 2. If a print does not initially look correct, more passes with various colors can be made to balance it.

Tri-color Gum Workshop-2598_800px

In order for the image to remain sharp, the negative being used must be placed in exactly the same spot for every layer. Michael Puff carefully registers his negative to exactly match the previous layers he’s created.

Tri-color Gum Workshop-2607_800px

Chris Palmer rinses out his print after exposing it to UV light. During the exposure, the areas of the gum emulsion blocked by the dark areas of the negative wash away in the water, creating highlights. Those underneath the light areas of the negative solidify and adhere to the paper, creating shadows.

BK Skaggs, Shari Trennert, and Maylee Noah rinse their prints while others hang to dry. These prints show the first pass with the cyan layer.

At the end of the workshop, all the participants show the results of their hard work by putting their favorite prints up on the critique board. Diana gives the class constructive feedback on their printing.

Finished prints by Maylee Noah showing one-color, two-color, and tri-color prints.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Event Recaps | Comments Off on Diana Bloomfield Teaches Tri-Color Gum Bichromate Workshop