wavy print

Create a Post
S

sabre

Grumbler
Joined
Mar 9, 2004
Posts
15
Loc
New London, MN
A customer just brought in a framed Les Kouba print ('89). They were wondering if I could get the waves out. When I opened it up I found it was mounted with a single corner on top and one on the opposite bottom. The waves run diagonally through the print. I've wondered about the use of mylar corners on prints like this and am glad that I've always used the traditional hinge method.

I have a cold mount vacuum press. Any suggestions on getting this print flat again?

Thanks!
 
Not much help but more of a comment:
I have too seen prints with only two mylar corners.
2 or 4? Whats the deal?

How wavy is the print exactly?
 
If it is an open edition print, it will dry mount just fine. If it is a limited edition or an original, you might still dry mount but only if you are told it is OK by the customer and you understand it is not a collectible interest to the customer.

If you don't dry mount it, it will most likely flatten nicely if you iron it. Just go slow and low on the heat. Then when you mount it don't do like the last guy and mount opposite ends.
 
I wouldn't recommend ironing it :eek:

Localized heat will change the paper's moisture content in just that area. Paper expands with humidity and contracts with dryness. Heat will dry out the paper, causing it to shrink. You could create a buckle in addition to the existing diagonal ridges.

Heat could also affect the medium.

Paper conservators usually flatten paper with a light overall humidification (I use Gore-tex)and pressing dry between blotters. But that doesn't always work and other techniques may need to be used. And humidification can be disasterous for silk screens - cause the ink to crack.

The safest thing for you to try is to sandwich the print between blotters or matboard and weight with glass. This assumes the ripples won't press into creases if weighted - something it's good to remember can happen. Not often, but possible.

Rebecca
 
As Rebecca said, weight and time are the safest
path. You could put it in a folder and put that
folder in the bottom of the stack in a map file
drawer and leave it for a good long time. Let the
client know that this will take time, but it is
the safest thing you can do.

Hugh
 
I absolutely respect the opinion of Rebecca and Hugh, but my experience is that weighting without moisture could take months or even years if it happens at all.

If the customer insists on framing it and isn't willing to send it to a conservator, then to me it would be best to just reattach it to the mount board giving it some space for expansion and frame it as is.
 
That's a very good option Jo.

I sometimes have to flatten without moisture (very sensitive medium) and it does take awhile. I usually put it at the bottom of my blotter/board stack and forget about it till the client calls asking where it is!

Even when real pros flatten paper, like Japanese scroll mounters, they leave parts of the scroll to stretch dry on the drying board (karibari) for up to a year. That is, those working on national treasures do this. The regular scrolls mounted by independents usually have a much quicker turn around time.

An interesting method started by the printer Tyler (Rauschberg etc.) is to interleaf blotters with sheets of triwall cardboard. When the stack of blotter/ humidified prints / triwall is complete it is covered with plywood and weighted, then covered over the top and sides with sheet plastic. Air (cool or warm) is blown through the corrugations for a few hours. Fast and effective.

But again, this would definately not work for everything.

Rebecca
 
Thank you for all the good advise. It is a numbered print, but the value to the customer was sentimental, so they might go for mounting. I don't really have the space to weight items, although that sounds like the best solution to this problem. I like the idea of hinge mounting and re-framing as is and let time and gravity do their thing.

Thanks again,
 
Create a Post
Back
Top