Thin Gage Aluminum Supplier

[davehyams]

love me some Fresson prints, those things are great. They seem to give color a texture that is completely unique, hard to put into words. I feel that its a whole different level of mastery when you are using the process to create your artistic vision, not necessarily reproduce reality. Anytime you're working with gum or similar process, the only limits are the ones you place on yourself. Alvin Langdon Coburn, Steichen, Kasebier and Demachy (as well as many others) made such diverse and incredible work within the medium. Sam Wang's work is special, he was one of the first contemporary artists that got me interested in Gum. Its always an uphill battle with anything handmade, and I feel that people are quick to try to dismiss it by saying, "Thats alternative process" and then feeling like they have engaged with the work. Had to deal with that at SPE, and had a couple of spirited conversations about how my work was not "Alternative Process" and how there was no such thing as alternative process in the art world. As for digi negs on Canon, I don't have any experience as I don't have access to the hardware. I believe that there is a rip that will allow you to control your ink in a qtr like manner, but not having the hardware I never really looked into it. Canon definitely has some features that are attractive, and there are a couple of things about the epson 7890 that I have that drive me a little nuts, but it does the job for me. I have yet to find a process where I need more density in my negatives than I can put down, even high relief carbon prints and printing out processes like salt, zia or albumen. Can't wait to take a look at those prints, please let us know if they are put online anytime soon, and one more reason to visit you sometime in Toronto.

[Drew Wiley]

Ternes and Stoesser are pretty much equal quality, and plenty of both can be found on the used market under prepress equip (not photographic supplies). I can't
quite picture using hardware store sheet metal. Seems like a nice way to slice your fingers on ragged edges. Isn't the great industrial spy of Fresson, Nadeau, still
there in central Canada?

[bob carnie]

He may be but he certainly has not surfaced in many , many years. I think Mr Nadeau was able to figure out the process , but I personally have never seen one he has made, I have seen Sheila Metzner's(sp) prints made by Fresson Lab in France and they are very nice.

Ternes and Stoesser are pretty much equal quality, and plenty of both can be found on the used market under prepress equip (not photographic supplies). I can't
quite picture using hardware store sheet metal. Seems like a nice way to slice your fingers on ragged edges. Isn't the great industrial spy of Fresson, Nadeau, still
there in central Canada?

[Drew Wiley]

They cut a deal with him. He could make all the Fresson prints he wanted for personal use; but they'd sue him if he divulged the exact secret. But there are so many ways of doing things nowadays I don't think many people would want to go to all the trouble of using a carbon arc enlarger and sawdust slurry anyway.
Their pigment set was primitive: the usual chromium oxide green, alizaron crimson red. So the process color palette is pretty weird, but Sheila certainly mastered it, idiosyncrasies and all. But these were 35mm originals to further accentuate the grainy feel. And another thing so odd about color Fresson is their horizontal/vertical screen.

[bob carnie]

Funny , that they thought to keep this process a secret.. personally I don't get it.

[Drew Wiley]

The secrecy probably involves the sensitizer or its specific manner of use. The rest you can plainly see described on their own website, and over the years numerous people have seen the machinery in person. Remember, there have been only a limited number of "direct carbon" processes ever invented, as opposed to carbon and carbro layered transfer techniques. And for decades Fresson achieved a very different look from the relatively bland gum and Kwik-print techniques, as commonly employed. Of course, they also had a monochrome version. But the mere fact of a semi-harsh abrasive agent (sawdust scrubbing) needed to reveal the colored relief mean that the sensitizer had to be unusually strong. What amazes me is how gold buttons on Fresson look like metallic gold, not like yellow (as even in dye transfer printing). The relatively coarse pigments kinda hug the surface of the print. But one could hypothetically choose a completely different set of process colors, including a much more accurate and lightfast set. They stuck with their own traditional look. I'm glad I got to see quite
a number of color Fressons once.

[bob carnie]

I hope to leave behind if I can still walk and not require depends, thirty years of production of prints using gum over various media...

Steve Sherman and I are planning a workshop over New Years where the complete
process will be laid out from PS - paper mt to aluminum-to separation negs- register- and final printing- we are also going to show presentation.

It is IMO very important to put this type of information out there so younger'ish workers can learn these processes.... It is a complete tragedy when one person/s feel they have cornered the market and
pretty much keep it to themselves.
I was really trying to go down the tri carbon route and the only persons really open to discuss this with me were Sandy King and Sam Wang.. One fellow wanted me to invest $100000 to produce tissue through Harman(basically I got off the phone and thought- boy what an ass.)
Luckily for me I have met people like Christina Anderson and Ron Reeder who both are super open about the process . with their help and some of the old photocomp work I did in the 80's I feel pretty confident with this process.

Since my very first days of colour printing-1975 I have printed colour each week and have really felt shitty about the colour permanence thing- there fore Silver Shack my first silver lab- I tried Cibachrome - basically those
prints faded in light and I doubt there is a single good quality RA4 print over 30 years old that I produced.
Now with this incredible Digital workflow the hardest part... scanners, separations.. are a piece of cake and mixing them with silkscreen, dye transfer, carbon, gum printing methods/tricks the reality of permanence is at our fingertips. I wish I was 30 again but looking at it the years put into learning different methods, earning a living and staying open for business has strengthened the whole circle of learning.

I will probably start a thread here in a month or two where I start laying out the making of these prints.. I prefer to use my own work as the samples.. lucky for me Rita Leitsner has agreed to be my first real
tester where we will hang the show and have a lot of critical eyes looking at the work. I expect a lot of varied opinions from ( these prints are absolute crap) to this (these prints are amazing)

[bob carnie]

found a good source of 20gage and it works real well in the plate burner.