Screen Printing - April/May 2016 - (Page 36)
sh o p ta l k
It Looks GooD on PAPer
Andy MacDougall
Editor's note: Since we last heard from Andy, he's been busy printing posters at South by Southwest,
getting his first tattoo, and blowing up treehouses - not to mention his ongoing work at Wachiay
Studios. We decided to give him a moment to catch his breath, and are sharing a favorite column
from the archives.
O
ne of the first art prints I ever made hangs on the wall in
my living room. It's been around since 1982, and although the
basic elements are still there, some of the colors, especially
the reds and purples, have faded to the point that they can't
be distinguished from each other.
Being young, stupid, uneducated, and naïve (pick any
four) about the art-print game, I used a speckletone parchment paper that was all the rage in graphic design at the time.
We bought it from our paper supplier, who sold tons of coverweight paper with all kinds of finishes. What they didn't sell
was rag paper - paper made from cotton, which, along with
other characteristics, is also acid free and has a neutral pH.
Once I started working with artists and talking to other
printers, I quickly learned about the difference between cellulose (tree-based) papers, which make up most of the paper
we see in our regular lives, and so-called rag paper, made
from cotton and used almost exclusively for fine-art prints,
watercolors, and archival documents.
From its invention in 105 AD in China until 1840,
when a Canadian and a German both independently discovered how to pulp tree fibers, most paper was made
from cotton or rags and some plant fibers, including hemp,
mulberry, rice, and bamboo. For you trivia buffs, the word
"paper" is derived from papyrus, used since ancient times
in Egypt, but not considered true paper because it was not
pulped, only flattened.
In the eighth century, papermaking moved from China
into Arabia, and Bagdad, Cairo, and Marrakesh became
papermaking centers, where the process was mechanized.
The Moors brought it to Spain in the 1100s, and then it spread
throughout Europe. By the 1400s, the technology had migrated into Germany and northern Europe, where its arrival
coincided with the creation of woodblock art prints. The
limited-edition art print was born.
With worldwide demand for printing paper exploding in
the late 1800s, pulped trees and their cellulose fiber became
the source material for paper. Not only was it plentiful and
cheap - hey, the country was covered with gigantic trees -
but newspaper, book, and magazine printing became increasingly automated. Pulp and paper mills sprang up all across
North America and Europe, anywhere that had a plentiful
supply of wood fiber and water - the prime ingredients
in the process.
The biggest problem, which wasn't really a problem
because most newspapers were thrown away after a few
36
screenprinting
days, was the tendency of tree-based paper to yellow and
inks to fade over time, due to the acids from the lignin contained in the raw materials and the bleaches used to whiten
the paper.
About the only people who noticed were artists, book
and art collectors, and museum workers. The importance
of using archival materials became more significant as the
effects of age and environment on artwork and books created
from tree-based paper came under increased scrutiny.
It became apparent that old-fashioned rag paper had much
better colorfastness and resisted yellowing. But it wasn't
until the later part of the 1900s that standards regulating
pH levels were introduced, environmental concerns came
to the forefront, and paper mills changed their ways.
So now we have acid-free rag paper, and we have regular paper. Many mills, responding to demand, have created
hybrid papers that feature a percentage of cotton and, more
importantly, a neutral pH balance, so they are considered acid
free. Removing lignin, substituting other additives such as
chalk, and adding alkaline value has also worked to neutralize the effects of the acids.
The reality of the art-print business is that volume producers running offset lithographs in editions that can go into
the thousands use these blended papers, both for economy
and because they will run problem-free on high-speed presses. Rag paper, especially with deckle (untrimmed) edges,
becomes problematic when running through a Heidelberg.
It's not uncommon for rag paper to be two to five times
more expensive than a sheet of regular cover weight. With
limited editions, the cost of the paper is not a big factor. In
the rock-poster world, where the average price for a gig poster is around $30, paper cost is important. So even though the
posters are signed and numbered, and the processes virtually
identical to those used in the fine-art world, your gigposter
artist will go with cheaper paper.
The caveat is to find papers that stay flat when printed
with water-based inks. Nothing is more disconcerting than
to lay down a background layer of ink and watch your paper
do an impression of the North Atlantic in storm season.
Andy MacDougall is a screen-printing trainer and consultant based on
Vancouver Island in Canada and a member of the Academy of Screen &
Digital Printing Technology. If you have production problems you'd like
to see him address in "Shop Talk," e-mail your comments and questions
to andy@squeegeeville.com.
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Screen Printing - April/May 2016
Screen Printing - April/May 2016
Contents
Editorial Insights
Pressing Issues
New Products
A 5-Minute Sales and Marketing Plan
The Top 5 Art Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Stencilmaking in the Age of CTS
After the Print: Breaking the Logjam in Finishing
Distributor/Dealer Directory
Classifieds
Ad Index
It Looks Good on Paper
Screen Printing - April/May 2016
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