Rolled Lithograph

Dodger

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Joined
Nov 4, 2000
Posts
24
Loc
Melbourne Australia
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We have been given the job of framing a lithograph that has been presented to us tightly rolled in a tube.
It has a reasonable value, and as such will be hinge mounted rather than gluing down.
Before we get to that stage, what are the general suggestions on "flattening" prior to mounting???
I have done a number of searches, but haven't been able to find a great deal on the subject.
Would a spell of solitary confinement in the vacuum press be enough to tame the roll??
All thoughts welcomed
Dodger
 
If you put it in a folder and store the folder
in a map drawer, under other foldered items, it
should get flatter, over time. You can let the client know that time is the safest ingredient, when such an item is being released from the shape that a tube inflicted on it.

Hugh
 
What I have done with great success is to wrestle the item into a folder, and take it home. At home, we have a swamp cooler, and the humidity runs as high as 40%. I let the item absorb the new humidity, then take it back to work. I put the now gently moistened item in the press with mild heat (about 100 f) and cook it dry. Ta-Da!

You can simulate this effect with a closet and a humidifier. This is safer than trying to wet the paper directly.
 
Hanna, what's a swamp cooler?

I'm pretty sure we don't have those in Wisconsin. Our swamps are plenty cool-enough.

Usually frozen, in fact.
 
Flattening a poster or print of any type at any time is an absolute pain - unless you have at least six hands!

And I challenge anyone with anywhere from two to twenty hands to unroll a large print or poster that is printed on glossy paper - without damage. It seems totally impossible to do it without one's handling of the poster causing further dings and creases, etc. Fingers are the problem. However, I recently discovered a dead easy method that may work for you...

Firstly, as an aside - you can buy an implement in the US that is designed to uncurl fine art and digital prints. There are 3 models of the "D-roller" available: 24, 36 and 50-inch. Prices are around $260, $280 and $300 respectively. This tool is made from a material that unlike paper, has no "memory" and fine art papers can be uncurled or even reverse-curled in just a few seconds or minutes, depending on the paper.

Their site is - www.d-roller.com - or, you can read reviews at - www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi027/essay or at - www.inkjetart.com/misc/droller/

But before you run off and spend heaps of dollars, try what I did recently...

As far as I know, the D-roller is not available here in Oz and as a movie poster collector I always suffer great anguish when posters (glossy especially) arrive in the mail - and of course they're always rolled. So as soon as I read of the D-roller, it struck me that the ordinary roll-up blinds on my windows don't have much of a "memory" either... pull them down and they stay down - flat, roll them up and they stay up - rolled! Mine are the standard Holland blind (as we often call them) fabric - that tough stuff that is somewhere between canvas and hard vinyl cloth. (In fact, I'm sure many of these types of material would work, as long as they don't exhibit a memory effect).

And my window-blind works beautifully! So most of us probably already have a D-roller and don't know it!

I have tried many types of paper from loosely rolled to savagely so - and they all work! Some will take a few minutes, some a few hours - this isn't after all a $300 specialty.

All you do is pull the blind down and feed one edge of the piece into the roller end as you carefully roll the blind up! If that's unclear... your roller blind looks like the letter "p" viewed from the side - so simply feed one edge of your poster into the crux between the round bit (the roller) and the stem ( the unwound fabric) - and pull the blind fully up. Wait awhile - and Voila!

Glossies still have to be handled carefully of course, but you don't have to attempt to unroll the whole piece - just feed one edge into the roller end so that the curl of the paper is reversed, and let the blind do what twenty hands can't!

"...now step up folks. For just $150 you can have your very own... no ma'am, this is not an old window blind... this is the all new sooper-dooper Cure-a-Curl with the inbuilt non-memory designed specifically to unbend your art! And it's on special discount just for today - so get it while it's hot!"

Now if only I hadn't gotten rid of most of them when drapes, verticals and mini Venetians became the rage. Ah well...

Rod

[ 05-21-2004, 12:14 PM: Message edited by: legends213 ]
 
I framed a large digital print for a client about two months ago and he purchased the d-roller for me to uncurl his print. It worked wonderfully.
 
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