Rolled Giclee prints

[Chris2103]

Hi

I have two Giclee prints that were supplied rolled in a tube. I need to flatten these before measuring and mounting. Am I best to unroll and hold down with suitable weights with a barrier between the prints, or sandwich between boards and weights on top with a bar tier between the prints and the boards? If so, which is the best barrier material to use to protect the printed surface?

Thanks in advance for your advice

Chris

[Not your average framer]

Is it reasonable to assume that these prints were rolled with separating and protective tissue paper between one print and the other and between the prints and the inside of the tube? If so I should be safe to remove the prints from the tube by winding the inner most ends of the prints in such a direction to slacken the pressure between the prints and the cardboard tube.

This is best done in the presence of the customer, so if there is any existing damage, there will be no question that the prints were already in that condition before removal from the tube. It would be a good move to inspect the outside of the tube first, again in the presence of the customer, looking for any dents caused in transit, no matter how small, as these can cause wrinkles on the prints known as shell marks.

Personally, I am not impressed with sending artwork through the post in cardboard tube, particularly if the artwork happens to be a photographic print. Unfortunately there are those who still do this and this often leads to very difficult to remedy problems. In the last couple of days, I have had to remove an autographed photograph of a famous sportsman.

Being a valuable and un-replaceable itme, I really surprised that someone at the other end, who is supposed to know what they are doing would do this. As most of us will easily understand, the first thing to happen, when this item is delivered is the the customer (who knows nothing about safely extracting this item), will just grab hold of the photo and yank it out of the tube.

The result was a curled up corner and because this is not just a cheap and easily replacable item, it was not appropriate for dry mounting and had to be mounted and framed as is. Also to add to the stupidity of the supplier, this photograph was signed across the sky with a silver felt tip pen. It looked dreadful and was done like this, even though the was plenty of room to sign the photograph lower down.

After successfully extracting the two giclee prints from the tube, I would place each print between two sheets of release paper and weight down to flatten under sheets of glass. Just placing these prints under glass is only weighting them where the weights are positioned. If you what the print to be flat, the apply the weight evenly across the whole print.

[prospero]

I get two pieces of mountboard and carefully place the print in between.
Put them on a flat surface and put a few books on top. Leave for a day or two and see
what happens. If they are not flat enough to mount, chances are they won't benefit from
leaving them under weight for any longer. In that case you have to resort to more extreme measures.
If you have a heat press you can try pressing them (still between the mountboards) on low heat for about
ten seconds. If that doesn't do it you may have to stick it down. That is the last resort.

[theframer]

Do the prints have a protective coating on them?
If not Be very careful what you touch the surface with as they mark very very easy.

Dave

[Chris2103]

Thanks for the replies. As far as I can see there is no protective coating on these so will proceed with caution

[lawrieh]

Hi
I print giclees sometimes from a 76mm diameter roll, the prints always come off curled and the first thing I do is have to flatten them.

I have ruined a few by trying to do it by unrolling by hand only, on very curly paper it fights you and you get creases, therefore only unroll using a long tube along the full width if you are going to try and flatten between 2 flat surfaces with weights. I sometimes float mount them in which case they need to be "de-curled" perfectly flat, you can buy a patented ""de-roller" for around £250

http://aztek.com/Deroller.html

I made my own first using 50mm plastic waste pipe and laterly some stainless steel tube. Word of caution. the £250 implement works because of the Mylar sheet privoding a ridgid surface so that the first end of the paper does not leave an indent in the paper on the following roll. You need to find some Mylar (sold on ebay for stencil making) of sufficient thickness or improvise (I used the plastic from an old large A0 print browser folder). the only other thing you need to conside is 2 small strips (2mm ish I reckon) down the outside of the sheeting that keep the print from being squashed, it effectively makes a little pocket for the print to lie in. VHB foam tape might work.

I also increased the diameter from 1.5" to 2" as this I considered was too little for thick fine art papers over 300g/sqm. You only need seconds once rolled to flatten the print....

Proceed with caution, good luck.

L

[Steve N]

Or you can just use a roller blind

[lawrieh]

That was the very first thing I tried (courtesy of of that Swedish furniture shop) and it failed, it will probably work on thin paper but for thick fine art Giclee type prints it can leave ridges where the leading edge rolls against itself.

[Steve N]

Never had a problem with ours

[baughen]

Steve,
Do you use any special procedures when you use your roller blind? Any other things to consider when using your method?