Question Papyrus

[mona]

Well I japenese rice paper mounted, floated,a papyrus for a customer, about 24x30 and she brought it back because the papyrus is getting wavy. Much more at the top than bottom where the hinges are. She doesn't like the waves wants it flat. I explained that wanting to see the edges and archivaly mounting sometimes we get the rippling. Well she don't stinking like it so I said I would try to flatten and then if she didn't care I would spray mount it down. Sooo how can I get this thing flattened without creasing it. Weights? Heat? Steam makes me nervous with the inks...thanks. Worst thing her friend framed up one a week before, didn't want the edges showing and didn't care if I mounted it using Kool tac, so ofcourse hers looks fabulous and flat. Help

 

[Jeff Rodier]

If the Kool Tack worked on the other why not cut a piece a lttle smaller than the art and mount it. Then just float the piece by glueing the FC to the backing. You may need to add a spacer to get the depth. Just be sure that the FC does not show through the art before you get it stuck down.

 

[mona]

I need to flatten it first if I used the mount board as it is it would definetly mount the papyrus with wrinkles.

 

[Rick Granick]

I would explain that total flatness is incompatible with archival treatment. If she's more interested in the look, maybe you could use acrylic and have it against the surface to provide flattening pressure. Personally, I think these look silly when totally flat, since the waviness is an inherent characteristic of papayrus. Why make it look like a print?
Rick

DO NOT spray mount it (for many reasons).

 

[05]

Flattening paper ain't hard, but it takes some space and some equipment, and two weeks.
Go to www.talasonline or wherever and order some Hollytex (I like # 3257). This is placed over and under the sheet that is being worked on to help prevent media loss. Also order some blotter paper -bigger and thicker is better.
You can make a temporary humidity chamber the size you need with 2 x 4 's and polyethylene sheeting. Make some kind of frame (you know how to do that) that's big enough, and stretch fiberglass window screening on it really really tightly, so that it does not sag when you put a piece of paper on. Wet a towel or towels (ordinary tap water is generally OK - if you leave a bucket of it sitting out over night, any chlorine will evaporate out), and lay these in the bottom of the humidity chamber, put the screen in, screen side up, a sheet of Hollytex (about 2" bigger on all sides than the thing being flattened), then put the thing to be flattened on top of the Hollytex. Cover the whole thing with that scratched acrylic sheet you can't use, and leave it there for several hours.
Have a stack of at least three sheets of blotter ready, and another sheet of Hollytex (the same size as the first). Lift the thing to be flattened by the Hollytex, place it on the blotters, cover it with Hollytex, then put three more sheets of blotter on top. Put a sheet of thick acrylic, laminate-covered board, or something else just about dead flat on top of this, then weight is all down as evenly as you can with bricks or books or barbell weights, or whatever. Leave it there for two whole weeks. Then remove it, and it is going to be as flat as it's going to get.
The instructions make it sound a lot more complicated than it is.

Make sure you get all the paste from the hinges off, or there will probably be some buckling there.

I attached a snapshot of a print in our admittedly more permanent humidity chamber, which is a giant sink. I don't have Hollytex under the sheet (it's important when the paper is fragile), and we use so-called egg-crate (from older-style florescent lighting fixtures) instead of fiberglass window screen, but the idea is the same.

05.
www.ica-artconservation.org

 

[05]

I ought to add that while the sheet is as flat as it's going to get, how long it will stay that way is anybody's guess. I just had a large sheet come out of the blotter stack after a couple months (the client was away), put it in the frame, and had to replace the 1/4" spacers for 7/8" spacers after a weekend. That's one unruly sheet.
A window mat over the edges might have helped, but it may have simply shifted the movement of the paper from the edge to the middle.

05.
www.ica-artconservation.org

 

[mona]

Thankyou I have always wanted to build a humidity chamber looks like I will be doing that next week. Ofcourse hard to believe I would need it in the rainy pacific nortwest. Which since the rains have begun the darn thing has buckled more. Thanks again

 

[05]

You are welcome. Glad to help.

 

[Puppyraiser]

Thankyou I have always wanted to build a humidity chamber looks like I will be doing that next week. Ofcourse hard to believe I would need it in the rainy pacific nortwest. Which since the rains have begun the darn thing has buckled more. Thanks again

Remember where it comes from... the desert. If it is more buckled when it is more humid, why not put it in a low oven and remove the humidity, then slap it down with cooltac fast, before it rehumidifies. Anyone's guess whether it will stay flat...

 

[Wanta B.Framer]

I really don't have anything to add here, but this is a consistant squabble with customers.


"well it wasn't rippled when I brought it to you!"

 

[Jim Miller]

I really don't have anything to add here, but this is a consistant squabble with customers.


"well it wasn't rippled when I brought it to you!"

That is a common problem in framing; I guess all of us have to deal with it.

As a matter of routine in our shop, during the frame design process we hold the customer's art up vertically and look for shadows cast by ripples/cockles/wrinkles/creases in the paper. There usually are some that would never be seen when the paper is flat on the table and the light rays are perpendicular. We make sure the customer is aware of them and, to add friendly emphasis, we point out that it is really difficult to handle large sheets of paper without getting some minor crinkles in it.

A steeply-angled light is needed in order to show the wrinkles...like the light that shines on the frame when it's hanging on their wall at home.

 

[Prospero]

I have in the past dry-mounted papyruses (papyrii???) leaving about 10mm unstuck around the edges. Only on the cheapo 'touristy' ones I hasten to add..... The drawback is that the mounting film can shine though the gaps in the weave. But as heat doesn't seem to adversely affect the paints, there is no reason not to flatten the things with a quick squeeze in a warm press and then hinge them. If they are placed between two sheets of mat board, there is enough moisture in the boards to humidify and relax the fibres. The trick is to let them cool under weight.

Personally, I think a few waves are all part of the 'look', As are the frayed edges.