Cameraless and Experimental Gum Prints

Once I had mastered the basic process, I had lots of fun seeing what I could do with gum, partly because I didn't have the capability of producing photographic negatives when I first started doing gum, and partly just because I'm a curious, experimental kind of person. One of my ongoing interests is the cliche-verre, which involves a negative that's painted or drawn rather than recorded photographically. I have also enjoyed printing photograms in gum. One early experiment, not shown here, was making rubbings from seashells (using Japanese silk tissue paper and a white oil stick) and then printing the rubbings on gum; I made a very nice set of notecards that way. People who got my notes often told me that they framed them.