Charles Steinmetz (csteinmetz@redneck.efga.org)
Sun, 11 Apr 1999 14:30:32 +0000
Judy wrote:
>From the evidence at hand, my guess is that Dick Sullivan is closest with
>shellac of some kind -- or let's say that's most interesting to me because
>the chimera I chase seems to have been a shellac.
>
>I've tried a few shellacs, but the ones
>I had were orange, it's possible that a fine artists shellac exists which
>I didn't find -- tho mine was from Kremer, which is pretty good about
>things like that.
That's interesting -- my shellac (hardware store variety -- "purest white
shellac" or some such) is nearly water-clear. I've never put any on paper,
but it doesn't give a noticeable color cast to light woods. NB: shellac in
the can goes bad with time -- it refuses to set fully dry and hard. Look
for the "use by" date on the can. Whatever you had that was
alcohol-soluble probably was shellac of some sort -- varnishes are
oil-soluble (most commonly made with mineral spirits and/or turpentine),
and most "lacquers" use more aggressive solvents (toluene, MEK, butyl
alcohol, etc.).
Another possibility for print protection is airplane dope -- acetates,
nitrates, or butyrates in solvent. Clear dope is water-clear, and seems to
stay that way for at least several decades when applied to silk. Hobby
shops that cater to model airplane flyers will have clear dope. Older dope
usually used acetone or butyl alcohol as the solvent; newer dope often uses
other similar solvents.
Finally, collodion (pyroxylin dissolved in alcohol & ether -- used for the
wet collodion process, and available from Artcraft, VWR, and other
suppliers) might be useful for the purpose.
Best regards,
Charles
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu Oct 28 1999 - 21:39:30