Digital BW, The Print

Varnishing Piezo (or other) Prints, Part 4

This is part four of my running account of varnishing Piezo prints. 
Once again please keep up with what Mark Romine and now David Gross 
are posting on the Piezo list on this subject and the various thread 
from the original posts.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/piezography3000

(Note that these materials and techniques may be workable on all 
types of prints so long as any inks that are water soluble or fragile 
will need to be pre-sprayed with one of the various protective 
aerosols on the market such as Krylon.)

I used the same two varnish systems as I did in Part 3:

1. Varathane

  As a sealer:
   Varathane Diamond Wood Finish – Outdoor Gloss Spray

  As a varnish
   2 parts Varathane Diamond Wood Finish – Outdoor
   Semi-Gloss, Gloss or Satin
   1 part water

2. Golden

  As a sealer "Morrison's Mix":
   1 part Golden Acrylic Medium Gloss
   1 part Golden GAC 700
   1 part water 

  As a varnish:
   1 part dilute Golden Acrylic Flow Release
   (1 part Release to 4 parts water)
   2 parts Golden Polymer Varnish UVLS

Trial 12

This was done on 4 sheets of Schoellershammer Velvet 225:

Sheet #1 Schoellershammer Velvet 225
1 brush coat Golden Sealer
3 brush coats Golden Varnish

Sheet #2 Schoellershammer Velvet 225
2 brush coats Golden Sealer
3 brush coats Golden Varnish

Sheet #3 Schoellershammer Velvet 225
2 brush coats Varathane Gloss
1 brush coat Varathane Satin

Sheet #4 Schoellershammer Velvet 225
4 brush coats Varathane Semi-Gloss

Observations:
This was the most difficult paper to coat that I have tried so far. 
It is extremely absorbent with the first coat drying so quickly I was 
not able to get it on without streaks. Perhaps it could be done with 
a spray coat first and more practice. The Varathane went on with less 
streaking. Except for the streaks the result was similar to Museo and 
given the difficulty of the Schoellershammer and the relative ease of 
the Museo, I wouldn't bother with this paper if you plan to varnish 
your prints even though the texture is very good.


Trial #13: 4 Sheets of Museo

Sheet #1 Museo
2 spray coats Varathane Spray - Gloss
2 brush coats Golden Sealer
2 brush coats Golden Varnish

Sheet #2 Museo
2 spray coats Varathane Spray - Gloss
2 brush coats Golden Sealer
3 brush coats Golden Varnish

Sheet #3 Museo
2 spray coats Varathane Spray - Gloss
3 brush coats of Varathane Gloss

Sheet #4 Museo
2 spray coats Varathane Spray - Gloss
2 brush coats of Varathane Gloss
1 brush coat of Varathane Satin

Observations:
This was a repeat from the last trial to double check results and 
compare Gloss and Satin Varathane.

The results were very good again. There were fewer defects in the 
Varathane coatings than the Golden coatings. Varathane Satin is 
glossier than Varathane Gloss on these prints. Both are glossier than 
the Semi-gloss. Optimum for the Varathane would be 2 spray coats to 
fix the inks, 2 brush coats of Gloss and a final coat of Semi-Gloss.


Trial #14 - 2 sheets of Somerset Enhanced

Sheet #1 Somerset Enhanced
2 brush coats of Varathane Gloss
1 brush coat of Varathane Satin

Sheet #2 Somerset Enhanced
2 brush coats of Golden sealer
2 brush coat of Golden Varnish


Observations:
Like the Hahnemule Turner and German Etching the Somerset Enhanced 
looks odd coated. The coating revealed a texture that looked like 
canvas. I did not find this appealing. If you want a canvas look you 
might try this but with a semi-gloss or matte final coat. The Golden 
coating was shinier than the Varathane. The coating went on well with 
no particular problems.


Trial #15 – 4 sheets of Epson Archival Matte

Sheet #1 – Epson Archival Matte
2 spray coats Varathane Spray - Gloss
2 brush coats of Golden sealer
3 brush coat of Golden varnish

Sheet #2 – Epson Archival Matte
2 brush coats of Golden sealer
3 brush coat of Golden varnish

Sheet #3 – Epson Archival Matte
2 spray coats Varathane Spray - Gloss
2 brush coats of Varathane Semi-Gloss
2 brush coat of Varathane Satin

Sheet #4 – Epson Archival Matte
2 brush coats of Varathane Semi-Gloss
1 brush coat of Varathane Gloss
2 brush coat of Varathane Satin

Observations:
I used EAM in my first trial but wanted to give it another try since 
I felt I had gained some skill with this and I wanted to see if an 
initial spray coat would help.

Much, much better than trial #1!! Probably still too glossy but I now 
feel that you can get a good coating on EAM. Because of the 
smoothness of the paper I do not think that you could ever get it to 
the point where it has no visible brush strokes but if done well 
should not be too obtrusive. The Museo has just enough more tooth 
than the EAM so that the brush marks don't show. Pre-spraying the 
paper did not seem to offer any advantage in the end result.


General Observations:

After this last round I have concluded that no two papers coat 
exactly the same way. Each one has it's own rate of absorption and 
has to be treated differently in what is applied first and how it is 
applied. There is not going to be a "one coating fits all" either in 
terms of application or artistic taste.

The first coat remains the key. Flooding the paper and then gently 
brushing off the excess and then watching the paper dry. If it starts 
to dry too quickly and/or looks like it is drying too unevenly 
immediately re-flood the surface and brush out again. (If you wait 
too long and it has reached a point where it is tacky this will not 
work and may ruin the finish but an uneven first coat will make it a 
loss anyways.) Also as each coat dry look for dust or other debris. 
If you catch it soon enough you may be able to brush it out with a 
damp brush.

What varnishing does for the prints in terms of Dmax and tonal range 
is amazing but the process is very frustrating. It is virtually 
impossible to do this without some small speck of dust, lump of 
varnish, fine hair, slight unevenness of finish or other small defect 
winding up on the surface of the print. You have to accept this as 
having a hand varnished look with the imperfections this implies.

Museo with it's not too smooth, not too rough surface still appears 
to be the best for coating. The Dmax on a coated Museo print is much 
better than any uncoated print.

Mark Romine's work seems to have ruled out airbrush applications 
unless someone else with some better airbrush equipment and 
experience wants to take it on. Larger automotive spray guns might be 
work. Silkscreen would certainly work. All of these would solve the 
brush stroke issue but not the dust and bits of debris problems and 
may have other drawbacks.

My next trials will be on the new Legion Photo Matte and the 
Brightcube Eclipse papers. I also finally got my shipment of 
ClearSheild Semi-Gloss vinyl inkjet coating to try. 

Martin Wesley