Took the day off since i needed to burn a vacation day. Worked on this italian one panel (2 fogli) that I want for my office at home. Working on larger stuff is a bitch and working with newer paper is a bitch. Old paper is much more user friendly especially french stuff. Also had a bit of a mishap that Im going to try and resolve once its dry, so I'll talk more about that later. Damn, Im tired.
My 54" x 72" frame:
Canvas on, also a bitch on big frames
Here is the poster, Sex Pistols Filth and The Fury
Masa down, probably the easiest part of the whole thing
The wash
Mounted, waiting to dry for a couple days...
Braying out the air pockets is a real pain. You need to try and work quick while doing a good job. I used to use a squeegee over the mylar but found that it didn't work that well because you can't really see the air pockets so I bought a soft brayer and it works pretty well.
Getting back to working on some stuff...First thing I should mention is that I have changed all the wet work and its been for the better. (Thanks for the help, once again, Charlie)
I tested on a cheap 70's US OS and everything worked out well except for a small hiccup that could have been disaster. Ive since corrected and things have worked very very well. So since this method works so well I decided its time to finally start tackling some of my eastern european paper. Which I have a good deal of.
I started with this Polish - A Perfect Couple (Robert Altman.) The poster actually looked worse in person than it does in these pictures. Im pretty happy with how it turned out.
I'm probably about 15 or so posters in and I think I've finally hit my stride where Im comfortable working on almost everything I have...I didnt do myself any favors by working on big posters either but at the end of the day it was good experience and makes working on anything OS or smaller a cake walk!
I used to use Chloramine T for bleaching but switched to using Calcium Hypochlorite and at the right ph it works great. The results speak for themselves.
Very nice, Fernando! Looks & sounds challenging to say the least! I've read quite a bit of Charlie's and now your threads, and set-up alone is labor intensive and costly!
Very nice, Fernando! Looks & sounds challenging to say the least! I've read quite a bit of Charlie's and now your threads, and set-up alone is labor intensive and costly!
Thanks and yes it can be. But I'm happy to help in any way I can when you are ready to go.
Worked on a couple things recently...trying to work on touch ups (bought a set of Faber Castell Albrect Durer Watercolor Pencils) to fix fold lines, tears, etc...
Ma Nuit Chez Maud French One Panel, this sucker was a big one panel 48" x 63" a real pain in the ass to wash and mount. Came out OK. Large format stuff should really be a 2 person job. It got it clean and fold lines are gone, so its ready for framing. I don't understand why some restorers don't do large posters, if a rank amateur like me can take them on, should be easy for a pro. Go big or go home!
This thing is so big, just hanging it to take a picture was difficult:
Also decided to back my Five Easy Pieces Polish poster. Im happy with it. I noticed it was almost perfectly white after the bleaching but the second deacidification brought back a slight yellow tinge to it. Not sure why, but it still cleaned up pretty well. This had a few rips along the edges on the top fold line that I'm touching up with the pencil and wet brush. Im finding that getting the color to match right is pretty time consuming. I filled and then went over with a wet brush. Then darkened the tear line again while it was still moist (this seems to help) and then tone down the excess with a wet brush several times by passing a wet brush.
Any suggestions on touch ups will be appreciated:
Washed and mounted, this was still before blending in the blacks on the touch ups:
You can see the smudges on the picture above...Ive reduced it by returning moist brush over the excess and brushing away from the tear line.
So what are you doing with all the posters you are backing/cleaning up...framing them? Have you started a framing studio too?!
Not all of them but I will be framing some of them. For example the last two I did will be framed, but now I got to get to my framer but he is across the border so Its a pain in the ass. But he does great work for about 1/3 the price of what it costs here in the US.
Comments
Thanks and yes it can be. But I'm happy to help in any way I can when you are ready to go.
Yeah nothing is cheaper across the northern border - especially not framing services!