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Paper Chase - On frog juice and other magic potions - part 4 of 1 2 3 4

by Mike McNamee Published 01/04/2004

"Overall then this material is one of the more exciting things to come past our desk for some time..."

Paper chase

There are a number of ways of applying a Giclee varnish namely:

Brush
Synthetic roller
Sponge roller
Spray
Silk Screen
Paperchase

The top image shows one of our early, rather clumsy attempts including all the drops spots and brush marks - it looked quite good at first as well! DCP recommend (and sell) the Purdy brush. These are the top dogs of the painting world and they certainly do perform well. If looked after they should last a lifetime. We got our best results brushing in one direction and then brushing off finally in the other direction. Two coats always produced a better result than one, no matter how much care we took with the first coat.

ClearStar, another of the manufacturers of varnishes do not recommend bristle brushing at all for their product (reviewed last issue) - they go for roller application. We only got a half decent result using a cheap 4" x 1 ¼" roller with a sponge surface but suspected that a higher quality one would have produced a better result. LG Harris are a big name in brush and roller making and so we contacted their helpful consumer division and obtained samples of high quality brushes and rollers. Their catalogue shows 22 pages of brushes, pads, rollers and dishes so we took their advice and went for a 2" White Diamond, professional quality, bristle brush and one of their small high-density foam rollers. While it was immediately apparent that the high-density foam rollers were much superior to the cheap ones we purchased at the local hardware shop, foaming under the roller was a problem as it left pit holes all over the surface. The spread of the coating was however more even this way and we experimented with roller application followed by brush smoothing with the Harris Diamond. To some extent the jury is still out on this one. An uneven first coat is still visible after a second coat has been applied. Both Carol Tipping and DCP favour three coats (although this visibly thickens the surface texture).

Subsequent discussions with fine art publishers led to the suggestion of rounding the edges of the foam roller to assist in blending the different roll strokes as the varnish is applied. This too is a method which will bear some more experimentation

Coating canvas is much easier than the flatter, plain surfaced materials, the natural undulations of the surface tend to hide any imperfections in your brushing technique.

A tip for users - you are going to need quite a lot of clean paper to place your prints on as you apply the varnish. Newsprint will not do the job, it is far too dirty and sheds ink. Costco sell 100m rolls of white banqueting tablecloth paper, which proved to be ideal and very inexpensive (£8.21 per roll) - or nick the remnant from your next wedding!

CONCLUSION Overall then this material is one of the more exciting things to come past our desk for some time.The opportunities for the social photographer are seemingly endless.The delicacy of art papers and matte black inks has always meant that they have to be put behind glass to afford a sensible level of protection.This is not desirable if you wish to show off the texture of the paper, something that artists and art lovers are sensitive to. Similarly for canvas prints from inkjets - they look a bit naff behind glass, oil paintings are nearly always varnished and displayed open, within a swept frame. Giclee varnishes are a magic goo which assists at all levels. And what of Frogs? Well Frog Juice is the material used by sign makers to protect their painted signs. There is a solvent-based varnish, which might have applications for dye based ink jet printing. Sadly froggy had gone a' courtin' and no samples were provided for test - another day perhaps!

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1st Published 01/04/2004
last update 09/12/2022 14:56:17

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