Varnishing Prints, Part 3 This will also be posted on the Piezo List. The one thing to keep in mind in using this information to varnish over other ink sets is whether the inks are waterproof or not. Piezo inks are generally quite water resistant on matte papers and presented no problems but as I discuss below there are exceptions. This may not be true of other inks, especially dye based or even Piezo on glossy papers. In these cases I believe these techniques are still valid if the print is first "fixed" with one or two light coats of a spray such as Krylon. Here is installment #3 in my running report on coating Piezo prints. Please make sure you are also keeping up with all the work that Mark Romine is doing on this as well. And David Gross who has happily jumped in. You will find it on the Piezo list ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/piezography3000 ) This series of trials focus on Varathane Diamond and Golden Polymer with the "Morrison" sealer. Varathane materials: I used liquid Varathane Diamond Wood Finish – Outdoor Semi- Gloss and Satin and aerosol spray Varathane Diamond Wood Finish – Outdoor Gloss Golden materials: Golden Sealer: 1 part Golden Acrylic Medium Gloss 1 part Golden Medium GAC 700 1 part water Golden Varnish: 1 part Golden Acrylic Flow Release diluted parts water to 1 part Flow Release 2 parts Golden Polymer Varnish UVLS Trial #8 This was done with 4 sheets of Wells River Sheet 1 received 1 coat of the aerosol Varathane and 2 brush coats of the Varathane Semi-Gloss Sheet 2 received 2 coats of the aerosol Varathane and 2 brush coats of the Varathane Semi-Gloss Sheet 3 received 2 brush coats of Varathane Semi-Gloss and 1 brush coat of Varathane Satin Sheet 4 received 2 brush coats of Golden Sealer and 1 brush coat of Golden Varnish Gloss Conclusions: Prespraying the prints helped to some extent to get a smoother initial coat. It also revealed that the spray coating does very little to seal the surface of the print. The 2 coats were a bit better than 1 but the prints still soaked up an amazing amount of varnish on the first brush coat. The two coats of Golden Sealer really seals the paper! Only a single coat was required on top to achieve a good finish. Trial #9 This was with 2 sheets of Museo and 2 sheets of Torchon Trial #10 This was also with 2 sheets of Museo and 2 sheets of Torchon Sheet 1, Museo received 2 coats of the aerosol Varathane Gloss and 2 brush coats of Varathane semi-gloss. For this I one I wanted to use the sealer formula posted (#12841 on the Piezo list) by Peter (last name not given) but unfortunately I could not find one of the ingredients, Golden Medium GAC 700, locally. I have some on order and will give it a try when it comes in. 1 part Golden Acrylic Flow Release diluted parts water to 1 part Flow Release For this run I tried a sealer using: 1 part water containing 20% Golden Acrylic Flow Release (a surfactant or wetting agent) 2 parts Golden Acrylic Medium Gloss (substituting I part for the GAC 700) The varnish was: 1 part water containing Golden Acrylic Flow Release 2 parts Golden Polymer Varnish UVLS (I mixed up two versions one using gloss and the other using satin) I did the following coatings with about 60 minutes between coats: 1 sheet ConeTech Wells River and 1 sheet ConeTech Orwell with 2 coats of sealer and 3 coats of gloss varnish 1 sheet ConeTech Orwell with 2 coats of sealer, 2 coats of gloss varnish, 1 coat of satin varnish 1 sheet of ConeTech Wells River with 2 coats of sealer, 2 coats of gloss varnish and 1 coat of satin varnish 1 sheet of EAM with 2 coats of sealer and 2 coats of gloss varnish Results: This sealer formula was a disaster. It resulted in a very uneven first coat and that first coat is the most important one. The Golden Acrylic Flow Release offers great improvement in the application of the varnish. It goes on much smoother with fewer bubbles and the brush strokes flatten out better. The satin finish is rather nice. There is less Dmax gain but the overall result is not as startling on the textured papers as the glossier finishes. A mixture of gloss and satin might be very nice. I personally like the coated Wells River better than the coated Orwell due to the smoother surface. Brush strokes are still visible with the Golden and there is variation in the sheen of the finish. I have pretty much decided that this is the nature of applying the coatings with a brush and I may not be able to completely eliminate them. You may or may not find this bad. The smoother the paper the more noticeable these issues are. Trial 7 This was done without a seal coat. The varnish was: 1 part water 2 parts Varathane Diamond Wood Finish – Outdoor Semi-Gloss This is the material I discussed at the end of Part 1. The aliphatic polyurethane that is non-yellowing. It is mentioned by Golden as being the strongest polymer but not suitable for paintings as it cannot be removed. I did the following coatings: 1 sheet ConeTech Wells River and 1 sheet ConeTech Orwell with 4 coats of semi-gloss varnish 1 sheet ConeTech Orwell with 3 coats of semi-gloss varnish 1 sheet Kodak Ultima Satin pre-sprayed with 2 light coats of Krylon clear, then coated with 2 coats of semi-gloss varnish Results: This looks really promising. With the 1:2 dilution it is definitely the easiest to apply with a brush of anything I have tried so far. It flows on very nicely with few bubbles and the brush strokes flatten quickly. It also dries very fast helping with the dust issue and shortening up the whole process. The finish is somewhere between the Golden satin and Golden gloss, still too glossy to my taste on the textured papers but close. The finished surface was still a bit uneven due to the difficulty in getting a good first coat. It shows little to no brush strokes on the Wells River or Orwell. Once again any defects in that first coat tend to carry through all the following coats. Brush strokes are noticeable on the Kodak but not as bad as the ClearSheild tried in Part 1. If a smooth finish could be obtained on this paper with the Varathane semi-gloss, you are getting close to a silver gelatin surface. The Varathane claims to contain UV protection and is designed for use outdoors but keep in mind that it was designed for use on wood. If I had to pick a varnish right now I would go with this one but at some point fade tests need to be done to compare the different varnishes. Jon Cone's recommendation to add the Tinuvin-292 and Tinuvin-1130 should be strongly considered, if the included UV protectors are unknown. See his posts #12330 and #12348 on the Piezo list. Other developments: Recently I returned to Home Depot to get some of the Satin Varathane to try. I noticed that it is available in aerosol cans. So there is a water-based spray available. A couple of quick tests show that it does give some Dmax boost but not much. The finish is rather pebbled as if the droplet size is larger than the solvent-based sprays. (It may be water based but it is not odor free. Much, much better than the solvent sprays but still too strong for use in the dinning room.) This may have promise as a smooth undercoat prior to applying the liquid Varathane by brush. By itself I don't think it is very good. There have been many posts on application method and I have a "puddle pusher" rod on order, which I will try when it arrives. Mark has ventured into airbrush and I refer you to those threads. It looks like the inexpensive ones do not have enough flow or flow adjustments to work. Automotive spray guns were suggested and I checked them out at Home Depot. They have a promising one for ~$35 but you then need a compressed air or gas source to provide roughly 6 cfm at 45 psi. I looked at their small selection of compressor but it was not obvious if they would be sufficient or not. Price was at the $100 mark. Did see a portable air tank for $30 that you can fill at the gas station. Don't know if this would work or not. The spray gun looks rather big and might be overkill unless you have some large prints off a 7000. I will definitely consider one the next time I paint the house. Silkscreen is an option and I may get to that eventually. It is inexpensive and easy but requires the use of larger amounts of varnish, which with things like the Golden, would be expensive for trials. The other draw back I see is that all the papers curve or buckle to some extent after the first coat. So a silkscreen application would be limited to one coat (unless the print was dry- mounted first). Also with a solvent based varnish you might get less buckling and be able to do multiple coats. My next trials will include using Peter's seal formula. (The GAC 700 came yesterday.) The Varathane Satin direct and the Varathane Satin over the Varathane spray. If the "puddle pusher" and/or the Semi-Gloss ClearSheild (see Part 1) arrive, they will get a tryout too. Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions and comments. Please keep them coming. If my course seems erratic it is because there are so many different things that could be tried. And don't forget to keep up with what Mark is doing and Peter if he posts again. Martin