>. I think that Terry's
>buckling is caused by an uneven wetting of the paper because he does not
>wait long enough. The heavy papers he uses take a long time to wet evenly.
>When using a hairdryer or something of the kind wetting only one side will
>have the effect that the paper will slightly stretch (only on one side) and
>because of the quick drying will not, or hardly buckle. The paper will have
>stesses though. Maybe the treatment afterwards will take care of these
>stresses.
Firstly I would like to thank Bas for his authoritative comment on the
stretching of paper.
For most of the time that I have been making gum prints with fairly heavy papers
I have not found it necessary to stretch the paper. It was only when I started
experimenting with using acrylics for gum printing on hot pressed papers that I
tried stretching. I am sure that my first efforts went wrong and buckled and
even tore was because I used far too much water. But then I find that the best
way to learn is to make the mistake and then work out what one needs to do to
put it right. I was using a large sheet of blockboard that the local wood yard
was selling off because it was sawn to feet and inches rather than cm and mm.
Now they sell the stuff in metric feet !
I checked with professional water- colorists who told me to stick the paper down
with brown gummed tape, I buy mine from the book binding department in
Falkiners, and then dampen one side with a brush. I use a hake brush. I allow
the dampened paper to stretch over night. This seems completely illogical to me
but it works.
But now I find that I did not need to it anyway. The 300 gsm Fabriano Artistico
hot pressed I am using remains stable for the number of coats that I need for a
gum print without stretching or sticking down.
Terry King