Re: plexglass face mounting
Hey guys,
Embedding the whole surface in casting resin, as you say, would do
the trick but would somewhat change the nature of the work. You
might do the same thing with acrylic medium or gel, but may have to
apply it in layers to get the thickness. Or something I did for a
show where I mounted prints on hardboard panels and presented them
unglazed and unframed: to protect the prints and also to give it a
nice sheen, I poured clear beeswax over the prints and buffed the
heck out of it with a soft cloth to give it a little luster. When I
was done buffing 20 fairly large panels this way, I had really sore
arm muscles. The beeswax is softer than the resin idea, but also has
a more organic look to it, which appealed to me.
It's easy with glass, because you can print on the back of the glass
so that the image is viewed through the glass, then the print is
protected by the glass, without anything needed on the front of the
print (although I've thought of putting another piece of glass,
separated by some space, behind (both pieces of glass held by wood
strips at the edges) so the piece could be hung away from the wall,
as a divider or something like that, and viewed from both sides. Of
course not all images would work well that way. This idea wouldn't
work for aluminum of course, but I'm just putting this in a general
category of ideas about how to present work that you don't want to,
or doesn't lend itself well to, the usual matting and glazing and
framing routine.
Katharine
On Dec 11, 2006, at 10:52 AM, Keith Gerling wrote:
Hi Loris,
Re-iterating what I said on my previous post to the list: I'd be very
interested in what you have in mind here. I've been experimenting
today
with this approach and I'm at a loss as how to proceed. The gum
and the
sizing sit on the surface of the aluminum. The appearance in one of a
smooth and uniform surface, but as soon as the plexiglass is placed
on top,
all of the imperfections and variances in thickness are readily
apparent and
not in a good way. In an effort to fill in the spaces and provide
a better
contact between the print and the plexiglass I tried (because I
could not
find or think of anything better) "buttering" a aluminum print with a
coating a acrylic gel and pressing on the plexiglass. This
resulted, of
course, with a complete mess: bubbles under the plexiglass - and of
course
the gel will probably not ever dry. I'm thinking that another
approach
would be to just lay the print on a flat surface and pour on some
casting
resin. One thing is certain: these aluminum prints of mine
certainly need
some kind of protection: 100% of my aluminum prints returning from
Istanbul
were ruined in one way or another. I knew I was in trouble when I
retrieved
the packages from customs (a long story in itself) and saw the green
"Inspected by US Department of Homeland Security" tape on them.
On another note. Do you remember Duygu, the student from the
school in
Bebek? She sent me this link with some of her photographs:
http://www.apelsinen.blogspot.com/
Click on "watch the show" in the bottom left to see enlarged pictures.
They're quite nice. I've been encouraging her to try gum
printing. Maybe
you should start giving workshops?
Later,
Keith
PS. When are you planning on showing the results of your carbon
experiments?
-----Original Message-----
From: Loris Medici [mailto:mail@loris.medici.name]
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2006 1:45 AM
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: RE: First Tricolor Gum (on aluminum)
Thanks.
Yes I print the cyan layer first - but I still can't register by eye
because I use plain paper negatives not transparency material.
I'm just using an empirically designed curve. Will calibrate using
Mark's system later - when I'm more familiar with the process - I just
want to experiment as much as possible right now; can't bother myself
with trying to be as precise / consistent as possible. To me gum is
definitely not for the control freak...
Thanks for the aluminum flashing tip - will look for this material.
Since I plan to paint the bare aluminum borders for most of my images
(mostly white - but with some color in it, like an overmat / frame) to
prevent distraction, a pre-painted material won't do harm... But this
won't work for images where seeing the metal borders would be
preferred.
Next project is:
To face-mount the images to plexiglass. (See
http://plexiphoto.com/engels/samples.html <- will do something like
this
- think of it as in-house Diasec mounting. I'm still looking for
suitable materials and thinking on procedures...)
Best regards,
Loris.
-----Original Message-----
From: sam wang [mailto:stwang@bellsouth.net]
Sent: 10 Aralők 2006 Pazar 22:56
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: Re: First Tricolor Gum (on aluminum)
Loris,
Congratulations on printing tricolor on aluminum!
A couple of observations:
- If you printed cyan, or blue, first, it would be very easy to
register
by eye. The red layer may then be dominant, but if you are going to
apply a black, or anything dark at the end, the red/magenta cast would
be toned down.
- You would definitely need a curve specifically for the new surface.
Even with paper, surface differences sometimes require different
curves.
- We can buy aluminum flashing already coated with white paint on one
side. If it works, then you would not need to apply gesso and save a
little work.
Again, congratulations and I'll look forward to seeing what else
you'll
do with it!
Sam
On Dec 10, 2006, at 11:43 AM, Loris Medici wrote:
Hi all,
I just wanted to share my very first tricolor gum print (a test print
actually) on aluminum (actually on any media). I just realized that I
set a too hard target for a beginner because:
1) Working with aluminum is not easy (have to put two coats of
acrylic
gesso + two coats of gelatine/CaCO3 mixture - a trick I learned from
Keith Gerling, tonal range and development is quite different from
what is it on paper),
2) Starting with tricolors instead of (more forgiving) multilayer
monochromes may not be the most logical route to take,
3) Aluminum is a stable support/media but this doesn't necessarily
mean that registration is easier and more successful - you have to
use
some kind of mechanical registration / you can't register by eye.
4) The whole process is definitely not for the faint-hearted.
Anyway, the print is here:
http://www.loris.medici.name/Tricolor_Gum_on_Aluminum.jpg
It's still missing the K layer + as you can easily spot the M
layer is
not correcly registered. A very rough print...
Anyway, let me express my immense admiration for people who are able
to make wonderful prints with this process. Respect!
Best regards,
Loris.
|
