Re: coating
2004-08-10 by Nick Nugent
Hello Steve, I'm copying my response to DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com just in case someone else may find this beneficial. Before sharing with you my latest technique which is unbelievably simple and yet so far has yield 100% perfect result I'd like to talk a bit about the reason why I feel I must coat all papers that are prone to flaking. Note that this method may not work on glossy paper due the fact that the brayer which I use will introduce textures into a surface which is supposed to be smooth. Despite the fact that I'm very concientious about flake removal prior to printing, some flaking will inevitably occur after printing as some other folks in the forum had observed. Maybe somewhere between the place where you let your print dry to the print framing table, or worse yet at your customer's home where the print is unfurled. I did a little test in which I printed a large block of gray on the Hawk Mountain Merlin which I had prepared the surface using the rolling technique, tapping on the back of the paper, brushing the surface, sprayed a fine mist of plain water using an airbrush, let it dry and roll, brush, tap again. Then printed the large gray block. Let it dry. And lo and behold I found tiny white flakes again after I flexed the print a couple times. The only difference is that these are very very small flakes as compared to those I got without surface preparation. The large block of gray reveals the flakes better than a regular image. Now about my coating technique: 1. a Speedball (TM) foam brayer which I bought at a local Ultrecht Art Supply store. It's best to wash this brayer in plain water to remove any foam particles left by the manufacturing process. 2. Liquitex acrylic gloss medium and varnish. I haven't worked out an exact lidution percentage but probably somewhere between 10-15% distilled water added to the medium. If applied full strengh without dilution you'll get a pretty interesting surface texture, however if diluted as suggested the paper's own texture will be more prominent which is probably more preferable. Pour a small amount of diluted medium on a flat tupperware container and work the brayer as you would a house paint roller. Then freely roll the brayer back and forth over the print. I tend to roll in one direction and then another until the whole print is evenly covered. For those that have played with coating rods you'd find that this yields a much more predictable and smooth result. Remove the print from the baseboard and let it dry for about ... 5 minutes then apply a second coat, or don't do the second coat yet but perform 3) instead. 3. Liquitex acrylic matte medium. Mix a small amount of this liquid to the dilution in 2) and store in a separate bottle. This final coat is to reduce the glossiness resulting from 2) above. Apply this coat using the same brayer technique. At this point I've almost decided that I don't need 3) at all. The sheen after two coats of 2) is very pleasing and I think if I dilute 2) even further I may get even less sheen. Or dilute 2) a little less and apply just one coat. It's unbelievable that even after one coat I got smoother result then before when I was using either an airbrush or the coating rod. And this brayer method is also very forgiving. So far I have yet to get a reject. Cleaning up after the coating process is also very simple because the coating liquid is water based. I hope you find this information useful. --nick --- Susspeople@... wrote:
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> Nick > I have been away from the group for a while. I started using rods > and > Hydrocoat over a year ago, but became quickly frustrated as probably > only 1 in 10 > came our perfectly without streaks. What are you using now. A paint > bruch and > then an air gun??? What medium do you use? > Thanks, STEVE >