My Digest for Linen-Backing Posters: Checkpoint #1

Ok, I thought I would just do a quick checkpoint on where things are at for me and what I am confident in and feel working well and what needs improvement.

Wheat Paste

I don't really waste time pushing the paste though a cheese cloth but instead just use an immersion blender. That works really well, less messy, less time consuming and no lumps that I have seen.

I think I am making the paste too thin though when I a take out of the refridgerator and add distilled water, I am going to go a good bit thinner. I did find that if I thin it too much, I can just put it in the refridgerator overnight and it will get to the better viscocity.

I also used a mini paint roller on my last poster and found that cleanup is easier since I don't re-use the rollers and also I can just dip the roller into the same pot that i cook and store the paste in...and really haven't seen any downsides of that.

Cleaning and Deacidify Solution

When I was cleaning the latest poster between two mylar sheets, I was getting good lignon and tannin presence when rinsing it out. I think i could do 2 or 3 cycles for heavily yellowed posters with a rinse, clean/deacidify, repeat repeat.... So, I think the formula is good and working. I let it sit between the mylar for 15-20 minutes before the rinse with distilled water.

Applying Paste to the Poster and Masa

Well...f*&k. I forgot to put paste onto the masa side and only pasted the poster. Oh well, may come out OK, but need to do both side.

Also, I kept the poster on the mylar sheet with poster face on the mylar, and used that to put onto the masa/canvas. This worked very well and virtually no creases as I used a squeegee on the mylar once in place to press it in. This worked well. Once problem I had was that when I put it onto the masa, I let it sit for a few minutes while I moved some stuff around. Bad move...just get the poster on the masa, squeegee it and move the mylar swiftly. the suctoion from lifing the mylar may lift the masa off the canvas as it is expanding from the moisture in the paste. I think it will still be recoverable, but need to work on that step.

10oz Smooth Duck Canvas and 50gsm Masa

This poster I used the 10oz duck canvas and 50oz masa. So far, I think it is worth continuing on, but maybe more fro smaller posters up to maybe a B2 size and I dont see any dimples on the masa from the canvas. It was harder to get mounted onto the canvas without getting creases, but that is more technique that I can work on.

I am close though to doing something of higher value.

Some more pictures below...I will do some touchup with the water color pencils tomorrow and update with before/after photos.

Below is the before and after. I only touched up the black so far and having some matching challenges on the image portion of the poster. I had some difficulty getting the sheen to match between the water color pencils and the image of the poster and found a nice trick that helped which is to use a small amount of Renaissance Wax (Amazon) and buff it with a microfiber cloth, it helped but it wasn't perfect. I may work on it more in the future, but just going to let it sit for a bit for now.

Also, when I rolled the poster up, there was some lifting of the masa off the canvas. I think this will be corrected in the future with applying the wheat paste to both the masa and the poster.

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