Question Cleaning unglazed giclees

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dpetti

dpetti

PFG, Picture Framing God
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A woman called this afternoon and asked about cleaning unglazed giclees on canvas. Seems her client is a heavy smoker and had just had the fun of cleaning the glass on his art collection and realized that his giclees were just as nasty. We printed the giclees on Living Color canvas and they were coated with LC's UV coating.

I advised her to have him consult a conservator before he attempted any sort of cleaning. She thought that was a great suggestion; then I put her in touch with our art department, who printed the giclees. These are Mort Kuntsler prints, not inexpensive. He is one of the premier Civil War artists and his work is expensive and highly sought after. Google him.
 
If the giclees can be cleaned at all, they probably would be improved, but probably would not look like new. Anyway, the cost of that treatment by a professional conservator would far exceed the added cost of using optically coated, UV filtering glass or acrylic on them in the first place.

You knew that was coming, right?
 
try and sell them to see what they are worth.

Spit - Q-tips - test
 
As you printed them and coated them, you have all of the materials to experiment and see if it CAN be cleaned.

Once you have printed and coated your test piece and let it set for a while, try plain water to see if it does anything to it. Then try Glass Plus and see what it does.
Then try something like Formula 409 and see if it does anything.

The main purpose of this experiment is to see how well the coating protects the ink... not if any of it will take nicotine off it. If the Glass Plus works , then it would probably take the nicotine off.

When you are done, let us know if any of that damaged the test piece.

You will never know if you don't try it.
 
Access Fine Art in Toronto sells canvas giclees which, they claim, can be wiped with a damp cloth. No coating or laminating. You may want to call them to look into their printing process. May not help now, but could be helpful in the future.


We laminate with a Satinex. They can be cleaned with a wet cloth.

I will never use a coating.
 
framah said:
As you printed them and coated them, you have all of the materials to experiment and see if it CAN be cleaned.

Once you have printed and coated your test piece and let it set for a while, try plain water to see if it does anything to it. Then try Glass Plus and see what it does.
Then try something like Formula 409 and see if it does anything.

The main purpose of this experiment is to see how well the coating protects the ink... not if any of it will take nicotine off it. If the Glass Plus works , then it would probably take the nicotine off.

When you are done, let us know if any of that damaged the test piece.

You will never know if you don't try it.
Click to expand...

Good suggestions, Ralph. I will give those a go and see what happens.
 
I remember when canvas printing first started and the early ones would smudge if you looked at them too hard.

When I enquired about cleaning the people who printed them said it wasn't necessary, which was nonsense. The manufacturers of the ink (Epson) suggested "asking your local art supplier for something" which, of course would leave me wide open if anything subsequently went wrong.

I adopted the policy of either putting them behind glass or, if they didn't pass the q-tip test, I wouldn't handle them at all.
 
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