Ironing a water color

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MarkG1

MGF, Master Grumble Framer
Joined
Jul 4, 2002
Posts
509
Loc
Centralia, IL
I had an artist in today and he said something about ironing water color paintings before framing them to make sure they were dry.

Have any of you done this? I thought I could try putting it in my heat press.

Is there a correct method for this?

Thanks,

Mark
 
Originally posted by markg1:
I had an artist in today and he said something about ironing water color paintings before framing them to make sure they were dry.

Have any of you done this? I thought I could try putting it in my heat press.

Is there a correct method for this?

Thanks,

Mark
Click to expand...
The press will help to flatten the paper. The vacumm does more for the moisture than the heat I think. It may not be the perfered thing to do from a conservation point of view but it is done all the time. It sure makes for a better looking frame job.


Jerry
 
Watercolor paints are held together with vegetable gum binders. If these are dried out
they may crack and flake off. This is why museums
keep these works between 45% and 55% relative
humidity at 70 degrees f.

Hugh
 
The customer had this done originally down in Texas. I personally have never heard of doing this.

He said it was done to prevent mold growth in the frame package.

I needed to check this out and see if anyone does this and has had adverse results.
 
Mark,

It seems that a watercolor is either dry enough to touch, transport, frame, or whatever, or it is still wet and needs to dry before doing any of the above.

If your customer is worrying about mold growth in the frame package, what in the world are they doing in Southern Illinois?!?

It sounds like overkill to me as the humidity will change with the environmental changes of the area whether the painting starts out dry or not.

I have torn apart a number of prints and other works on paper that have signs of foxing and mold growth and there isn't alot short of Hugh's suggestions that would cure that problem here in this area.

Framerguy

P.S. Thanks for the boxes. They finished off the last of the matboards and foamcore for me. :D
 
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