Nori Paste

[Cliff Wilson]

I saw Ron's post in the "V-hinge" topic, but didn't want to hijack the thread.

I had a conservator in to do a workshop in my shop a little while ago. I paid, but invited some local framers. Anyway, ... he cooked up some paste and I had the Nori packets. His paste was thicker and seemd a little tackier. (He had a special cooker and automatic "stirrer" and other stuff. I had been having trouble with how wet the Nori was.

Well, to cut to the chase; the conservator showed us how to "dry out" the Nori paste by letting it sit on blotters and/or rag scraps. If you watch it you can catch it at just the right consistency for whatever paper you are hinging to. (fast or slow) The end result was an easier time pasting to much thinner papers.

I suppose most of you knew how to do this, but I didn't. It seems obvious now that I have seen it. Kind of a Duh!

 

[JRB]

Cliff, ******, I've been framing for over forty years, I hate it when someone tells me something I didn't already know. Thanks, that is a good tip.

John

 

[Ron Eggers]

I have been letting the Nori paste dry right on the hinges themselves (not on the art!)

With a bit of practice, that works for me.

The downloadable video Greg mentioned gives some very good tips.

 

[Jim Miller]

Hugh Phibbs has an excellent class on "Micro-Dot" pasting, which uses something like a small piece of 3M Dual-Lock as an applicator.

Essentially, the paste is applied in very small dots, and in a consistent pattern.

Not difficult, but tricky at first.

 

[Cliff Wilson]

Jim, I was experimenting with this technique ("microdot"; there is a thread in the archives) and it seems to work much easier with "thicker" paste. This is one of the reasons I was thrilled with just putting the paste out on the blotter.

Ron, next time, just put some paste on a blotter and watch the water wick away. I think you'll find that using a dry brush to apply the paste from the blotter will give you a hinge that is "ready to use" very quickly! (of course I am not talking about something on heavy watercolor paper, or something where the hinge won't have a visible effect on the surface of the paper anyway.)