jewelia (jewelia@erols.com)
Tue, 16 Mar 1999 00:29:29 -0800
hamish: i'll make just a couple brief responses tonight and try to add
something later:
one fiber that should have a lot of promise for us is abaca--from the leaf
of the banana tree--abaca has an extremely long fiber and has a natural
off-white or buff/ivory color. can make a very strong paper with great wet
strength. it is commonly bleached white. can be used to make paper western
or japanese style--it is a realtively easy fiber to work with -- and
hydrates easily--. and can be used in leiu of plaster casts - so one
alternative for printing on plaster might be to decide to print on cast
paper instead? -- abaca is commonly used for this, sometimes with some
cotton or in other cases cotton is used alone (the smaller fibers and
well-beaten usually). abaca in sheets is a common choice (i understand) to
use for embossing on vacuum tables (this table rig can be a commercial piece
of equip or a jury-rigged wet-vac) --people have made photographic images
on paper--and with the paper wet -- embossed it in this fashion to alter the
surface/image--but i couldn't say how your gums would fare. you would have
to purchase abaca sheets from a specialty paper or papermaker supplier.
as far as the washi and gum -- if you wanted to work with them i wouldn't
count them out -- you will have to work with them though i guess is the
simple way to put it. one of the difficult/perhaps dangerous things about
discussing papers that are available is that we generally leave it as they
come off the shelf. washi is thin and generally unsized and being unsized
many do not hold up to photo processes as they are -- but that doesn't mean
they can't be used. you may have to work with the paper first before
printing an image on it to make it capable of meeting your desires-- this
means that a lot of japanese papers need to be sized first --gelatins,
starches, acrylic matte medium (its clear), glues, and other synthetics are
possible ways to adapt your surface to your image needs -- what works
depends i guess is all i can say for sure -- but these papers have a
delicate, translucent, texture to them (the handmade ones do) that could be
incorporated into the image and maybe the material can lead the image as far
as we can lead the material?
took a quick look at your web site hamish -- looks promising -- i'll come
back to it -- have a few others to finish looking at first -- so you are on
my list
jewelia
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Sat Nov 06 1999 - 10:09:03