| Author | Message | ||
  Robert |
To be more specific--She claims the acrylic sealer will serve as a barrier bewteen the varnish and the paper. She is not able to prove this, it is an assumption. She has no way of knowing how the varnish will interact with the sealer over decades or if "long after the artist is gone" as she says, archivists would be able to remove the varnish. I bet she doesn't have a scientific background becasue if she did, red flags would have been waving in her brain at many steps of this. | ||
Robert |
I am wary of this even though she has experimented and found something that "works." I am wary because in strikes me that hundreds of PhD chemists are employed by the mega art materials manufacturers to come up with new materials and approaches to sell to artists. Such a technique as she describes has to have been investigated. It would be to obviously profitable not to have occured to anyone. My sense is that harsh chemicals on paper (lonf chain hydrocarbon varnishes would qualify) produce complex and long running chemical reactions. My common sense tells me there is a reason, a solid sceintific reason, why art supply companies haven't already figured her approach out if it indeed is as good as she "feels". Paper is delicate and varnishes are harsh. I would think there would be a commercial incentive for a company to manufacture and promote this varnish if it did not have severe drawbacks. She doesn't have the equipment or expertise to adequately and rigorously test. I would not subject my paintings to this. Too risky. | ||
Robert |
I wonder, If 50 years from now, the painting will be mush. | ||
midnight_baseball |
at the 2005 florida watercolor society meeting, arleta pech gave a very informative talk on varnishing watercolors. she seems to have perfected a system that yields nice results. info on her methods can be found here: http://www.arletapech.com/Varnishing.html | ||
marie |
The seal on the clearbags is about the same as you would get with a plastic envelope. It's not as tight as the seal you would get from shrinkwrapping. | ||
Raliegh |
Marie, thanks for the instruction in shrink wrap. How do you find the bags, would you consider it as acceptable a seal as shrink wrap? Here in the tropics it is important to shrink wrap and I've seen good one and poor adhesive jobs. | ||
marie |
First off, there's something else I use that I forgot to mention in my earlier posts. I very often use something called "crystal clear bags" to wrap my standard size artwork when I am not planning to frame it. These bags are clear envelopes with a sealable flap on one side. You can get them at http://clearbags.com/. They're cheap and convenient. I have had mixed results with shrinkwrapping. Here's how it's supposed to work: 1) Buy a roll of shrink wrap. (Cheap Joes carries it.) 2) Cut a piece of the shrink wrap and wrap it, much the same way you would wrap a gift -- except perhaps a bit more loosely. Make sure to leave plenty of extra room around the edges because the film will shrink. 3) Lay a piece of paper (newsprint will do) over your piece and the film. (The paper seems to even out the heat a bit.) Set your iron to medium heat, and iron the seams until they bond. It's very important to get the heat the right temperature. If the iron is too cool, the seams don't bond, if the iron is too hot, the plastic will melt. 4) Take a blow dryer and heat the piece until the film shrinks. Now, here are a couple of other things I have discovered. 1) The ironing works better with a small hobby iron that model airplane builders use. (If you are interested, I will pull mine out and give you the exact model.) 2) The type of shrinkwrap film is evidently important, and I think I have the wrong kind. Consequently, I tend to have trouble getting the seams to bond. I am using something called Ultrafilm, which is supposed to be the latest and greatest. When I explained my situation to another artist, he said "Oh, you must have gotten the film that doesn't want to stick." One kind bonds easily and the other doesn't. Unfortunately, I don't know the name of the brand that is supposed to work better. Sigh. | ||
LunaTiger |
Hi Marie Thanks sooooo much for the links:) And thanks for telling me about the pigments in other medias. There's just not so much talk about lightfastness and protection concerning oils and acrylics I guess? Could you please tell me more about shrinkwrapping? | ||
marie |
I have never tried silver leaf or any other leaf in my watercolors. | ||
Linda |
Thank you marie, for your generous assistance! Like, this link is totally awesome: http://www.hfmgv.org/explore/artifacts/paper.asp Do you happen to know anything about platinum leaf? Aluminum leaf? Have you ever used the leafs in your watercolor works? I've posted this question elsewhere in more detail, because I need advice with a portrait. | ||
marie |
LunaTiger, all media have conservation issues. Lightfastness is an issue in any medium -- oils and acrylics as well as watercolor. In addition, oils and acrylics have all sorts of issues with the proper preparation of the ground, which watercolorists don't have to deal with. And oils -- omigosh -- there are all sorts of issues with the viscosity of paint and oil absorption rates of different pigments. A couple of things about framing behind glass: * Glass doesn't provide any protection against light unless you use UV-treated glass. * Glass does provides protection against dust, pollution, and moisture. I found a web page that gives an overview of museum quality conservation of works on paper at http://www.hfmgv.org/explore/artifacts/paper.asp. Just to see that oils have conservation issues as well, take a look at http://www.hfmgv.org/explore/artifacts/paint.asp. The procedures recommended by archivists are probably overkill for everyday use. Have you thought of simply shrinkwrapping your work? It should provide decent protection from dust, moisture, and insects -- at least for a few years. You can apply shrinkwrap with a household iron and a blow dryer (although it takes some trial and error to get the temperature right). I have also heard of people putting shrinkwrapped watercolors in frames (with no glass) for temporary display. | ||
LunaTiger |
Lisa-> Talens (I think...) makes watercolor-varnish in liquid form to "paint" on and there are some who offers varnish-spray, but I've never really heard of anyone using it... Maybe it's different here in Europe? But thanks for the advice on the plastic-covers. I'll go check them later, hopefully they are not too expensive. Marie-> I have always been very puzzled about why watercolors don't last in sunlight unless put in a glassframe because the pigments should be the same in oils and acrylics too... or am I wrong? Do you know? Sorry, thinking loud... But yeah... lightfast pigments of course! | ||
marie |
Varnishing is generally not recommended for watercolors, and it doesn't not provide much, if any, protection from light. Your best bet is to use lightfast pigments. | ||
Lisa |
Joe's sells some plastic slip covers with matting for this purpose. But varnishing!!!!????? HUH? I have never encountered this practice in thirty years of painting, workshopping, gallery showing etc. Are you confusing waterclors with oils? | ||
LunaTiger |
I can't afford framing my works so does anyone know of any alternative options for protecting a painting from light? I have tried the varnish for watercolors a couple of times but I can't tell if it's good enough. And what about acrylic varnish? And IF I use the varnishes do I then have to coat both sides of the paper to prevent moist being absorbed into the paper or is that "moist"-thing exaggerated? |
