Flattening Paper

[kier]

Hi Everyone,
This is my first time here and it looks like the folks here are pretty knowledgeable, and so I humbly come before you looking for an answer to a problem that truly escapes me.

I've recently started doing some polaroid emulsion lifts onto Arches 90lb watercolor paper. I got the emulsions onto the paper beautifully, I'm loving this paper, but with one major hang-up. The paper, after drying, is very wavy and wrinkled. I've had these buggers sitting under 40lbs of books for 2 days now and they are barely flatter than when they first dried.

So I was wondering - what's the trick? Does anyone have a good way of flattening this paper? Better yet - how to keep it from getting wrinkled in the first place!?

Thank you!
kier

[keithwms]

Let me suggest a dry mount press, that will flatten just about anything. But do be careful- do a test on some uncherished piece first, to make sure the temperature isn't damaging. I don't know how it will affect your particular lifts or transfers. What I sometimes do is warm up the press only half way, unplug it, and just leave the prints in there overnight or a few days.

Generally, curl & warp comes from uneven rate of drying on opposite sides of the paper or in different areas on the paper.

[Walt Calahan]

You need to use heavier paper. A 300 lb / 640 g paper will not do this.

Even a 140 lb water color paper will buckle if not stretched before tacking to a board. I paint watercolors - get a 300 lb paper stock.

[Katharine Thayer]

No need for drymount or heavier paper. Spray or mist the paper lightly from the back, not the front, to relax the wrinkle. Then put under weight (I recommend putting the print between blotters and under a piece of heavy glass, before adding the books. That should flatten it very nicely. Next time shrink the paper and dry before doing your transfer, and that should reduce the wrinkling somewhat.
Katharine

[kier]

Great info everyone - thanks for the help! Katharine - how do I shrink the paper? Do you have a link to a good tutorial?

[Katharine Thayer]

Just soak in warmish water for a while, then hang to dry (take down and flatten between blotters before it dries so much that it curls). Hot water isn't recommended with Arches paper, as it can partially melt the internal sizing, but at any rate hot water isn't necessary to shrink paper. kt