[alt-photo] Re: pre-shrinking paper

[Marek Matusz]

Francis,

I second soaking paper with warm water (not hot). My experinece is that I could not find the hot water pre-soak did any better then warm water presoak, as a matter of fact very hot water soak tended to change the paper somehow (for worse). SInce gum is developed at room temperature so should be the soak conducted at room temperature. That was always sufficient for me. Now, there is another issue, that is ambient humidity. Paper will shirnk and expand according to ambient humidity. FOr example I have learned never to put first cyan layer on a rainy day. I always have difficulties registering on top of that layer.

Your drying of the gum coat should be consistent as well as it will affect paper size. 

I have printed up to 13x17 with no issues.

It is helpful to mark a piece of paper with line and dimensions (full sheet works well) and do some pre-shrinking experiments. For example mark the fresh sheet, warm water soak 30 minutes, dry for a day and measure the shrinkage, next soak, dry, measure. See what you get. This way you can arrive at the procedure/paper that suits you. DIfferent papers shrink differently as well so you might want to look at that
Marek 
> Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:46:48 +0100
> From: michel at debar.org
> To: alt-photo-process-list at lists.altphotolist.org
> Subject: [alt-photo] Re: pre-shrinking paper
> 
> First, to prevent damaging the fibers of the paper, I would recommend that
> the soaking would be not in water not warmer than 40 C°. Higher temperatures
> tend to rupture the fibers, and weaken the paper. Soaking for one hour is
> probably overkill, 20' would normally be more than sufficient, followed by
> drying. To diminish the shrinking, you can repeat the process one or two
> times.
> 
> If possible, you may choose to align the paper direction with the longer
> edge. The paper shrinks in the direction opposed to the "paper direction"
> (or grain direction). By aligning it this way, the shrinkage is along the
> shorter edge, and thus minimized. See any good book on bookbinding for more
> on this topic, or a brief explanation in
> http://www.katercrafts.com/grain.htm.
> 
> However, depending on the image, you may decide that shrinkage might be less
> noticeable if it is along the long edge.
> 
> 
> 2010/1/18 francis schanberger <frangst at gmail.com>
> 
> > I have relatively little experience pre-shrinking paper and would like to
> > solicit advice from the alt processes list.
> >
> > I am working on a three color gum with a cyanotype layer and noticed that
> > the paper dimensions did change even after a pre-soak and dry in hot water
> > for an hour. The image dimensions are roughly 20" x 16".
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > francis schanberger
> >
> > www.frangst.com
> > _______________________________________________
> > Alt-photo-process-list | http://altphotolist.org/listinfo
> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Michel Debar
> 11, chemin du Fort Saint-Héribert
> 5100 Wépion Belgique
> 
> Tél. +32 (081) 4612 04 - +32 (0485) 72 83 92
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