paper shrinkage

Hi all,
     I know, I know, this is anal but here goes (summer hasn't arrived here
yet--61 degrees today; what better thing to do than stay inside soaking
paper...):

     Another one of these inane (is that from the root word anal, too?) bits
of info you don't need to know, but a while back I posted that someone
somewhere said that paper shrinks 15% when wet and dried the first time.
After I thought about it, as I said, that would be a whopping amount for a
22x30 piece of paper--99 sq in..

     Believe it or not, it was NOT from a watercolor class as I had assumed.
It was from gum books! I just located this comment in not one but 3
reputable sources! One said paper expanded when wet 15%, one said it shrunk
when dry 15% and can't remember the exact wording of the other. Then I
found one author, the one who printed Curtis' gums (yes, THE Curtis--he
didn't print his own gums) say he didn't preshrink paper because it wasn't
that big of a deal and the misregistration would soften the image nicely.
If this were the case, it couldn't have been 15% (sort of as if paper
expanded or shrank one whole inch all the way around a 22x30 sheet)

     So I tested it today, and found with just one paper, Arches, the
shrinkage was at the most, 1/4 inch, in 5 pieces tested. Most shrunk only
1/8 inch to 1/16 inch. The 1/4 was the long side (30") on a large uncut
sheet I let hang, so thus the most shrinkage I saw was under 1 %. Definitely
enough to get a fuzzy image that wouldn't be acceptable in my eyes (1/32
bugs me), but not inches

     Of course there are many papers and many variables, including multiple
preshrinking as Judy pointed out, but I think the 15% figure is definitely
off. OH, I measured both wet and dry, too.

If anyone gets their paper to expand/shrink 15% would you let me know? Like
see if Rives BFK does? It is possible the current papers are more
dimensionally stable than they were some years back (these weren't old books
except for the Curtis comment which did not say the 15%).
Chris
PS Hair Loss Talk Store??? Is that a joke or a virus?
Received on Fri Jun 25 15:45:56 2004