Aargh, nightmare!

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Rainbow
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Aargh, nightmare!

Post by Rainbow »

Got a poster to frame. Very stiff paper, rolled very tightly. Resistant to attempts at flattening. Eventually I decided to work with what I'd got, cut the mount and tried to lay the poster on the undermount, with a view to using V-strips to keep it in place. Poster had a life of its own, so to temporarily keep it in position whilst I fitted the V-strips, I taped it with some removable tape. V-strips wouldn't hold it, so back to the drawing board. Removed the removable tape - but it's left a sticky residue on the poster :swear: :crying:

Should I leave it as it is and hope any residue that the mount doesn't cover won't discolour?
Should I try to remove it, and with what?
Should I try and replace the poster?

Advice much appreciated!
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Skinnymarinky
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Re: Aargh, nightmare!

Post by Skinnymarinky »

1. Don't be scared.
2. Try to replicate the problem on a glossy page of an old colour magazine. Use this to experiment.
3. Rub it with your finger. Sometimes it just rolls into a ball and rolls away.
4. Rub it with a paper towel, in small dabbing motions, not a wipe, which may result in a bigger smear. The paper towel may attract the stickiness more than the glossy paper.
5. Dab it with the offending tape. Again, it may be sticky enough to attract the residue without leaving any more.
6. Put a little lighter fuel on a paper towel, rub away. The lighter fuel will initially darken the paper, but when it evaporates will return to its normal colour. However the magazine page may react differently to this treatment than the poster. Also, it may take the shine off the poster.
7. If all the above fails, try to order a new poster online.
8. If all the above fails, confess to your customer.

To avoid getting into this problem in the first place get a reverse roller. You can buy one from Lion for a fortune or make one yourself from a drainpipe and a piece of plastic. Leave it reverse rolled overnight, or for just a couple of hours, and hey presto.
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Re: Aargh, nightmare!

Post by poliopete »

I feel your pain rainbow and bet your life we have all been there.

Skinnymarinky has given excellent advice and the 8 points are worth trying perhaps apply the lighter fuel with a cotton bud.

I found my self in this very same situation years ago with a nice glossy print of a famous Tea Clipper. All attempts to save it failed so I purchased another the same size over the phone (no interweb back then) imagine my horror when a completely different print of that ship arrived. Anyway, I framed it as specified and was ready to 'fess up to the customer when they collected - showed them the finished job and was amazed when they said "great, just how they remembered it" :shock:

In future the reverse roller is the way to go and Steve N has also explained this in an older post.

Best of luck and keep your chin up.

Peter.
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Rainbow
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Re: Aargh, nightmare!

Post by Rainbow »

Skinnymarinky wrote: Thu 15 Aug, 2019 8:17 pm To avoid getting into this problem in the first place get a reverse roller. You can buy one from Lion for a fortune or make one yourself from a drainpipe and a piece of plastic. Leave it reverse rolled overnight, or for just a couple of hours, and hey presto.
Absolutely brilliant, THANK YOU! :clap: I've now watched a Youtube video of a commercial reverse roller, and it was followed by a video of DIY version. In that version, they used a postal tube to which bubblewrap was attached, and they laid tissue paper on top. I couldn't find SteveN's posts, poliopete, but I found a thread where someone had used cellophane for protection instead of tissue paper. The poster was wrapped in tissue paper but it's a bit crumpled now so I can use cellophane instead. I'm so relieved that I now know about reverse rollers, thanks again!

So now all I have to do is sort out the sticky residue. Thanks for all those suggestions, Skinnymarinky. I'll try to particularly heed Point 1 :D

PS. Chin will hopefully be back in place tomorrow, Peter!
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Steve N
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Re: Aargh, nightmare!

Post by Steve N »

Re . reverse roller

Pop in B&Q, HomeBase or any department store , go to the curtain department and see if they have any Roller Blinds reduced, they do get them, people return them, broken packaging etc, or if no reduced ones, then buy a new one (still cheaper than a Reverse Roller from Lion etc) and use that, just use some tissue paper on the front of the rolled up art work.
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Re: Aargh, nightmare!

Post by Not your average framer »

It might be easier to temporarily protect the sticky residue until you can get the poster flattened. I don't know if this is necessary as I can't see it, but sticky bits on unruly artworks don't want to come in contact with areas on the poster, where they might do damage. If you can give the sticky residue areas a god dusting with talcum powder, this wll make the stickiness a lot less sticky. Light rub the talcum powder around to ensure the sticky bits are well covered and lightly brush away any loose residue of the talcum powder. It will be a lot easier to remove the sticky residue after the print has been flattened.

I usually reverse roll the artwork around a roller first (cardboard tube usually) and then finish the job off in my dry mounting press between two sheets of smooth mountboard, with the board at the rear of the print very lightly moistened with a slightly damp sponge. I prefer a dampened sponge to a dampened cloth, because the flat surface over the sponge helps to maintain even contact to the surface of the mountboard. Cleaning the adhesive residue off from the rear of the print is usually a safe procedure, but don't assume that the front surface of the poster won't necessarily be unaffected by the lighter fluid.

The chances are that everything will be fine, however if this is a poster with a glossy surface, treat it kindly as some of these glossy coatings can become slightly less glossy, if anything get moved across the front surface, while that surface is still wet. Although your customer won't notice such a subtile change in the level of gloss, if you are as fussy as me, you probably will. Funnily enough, changes in the level of gloss are often still visible even when the artwork is behind glass. In my experience, customers don't seem to notice this even when you point it out to them, my guess is that because we are looking for these things day in and day out, we just don't miss these things.
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Rainbow
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Re: Aargh, nightmare!

Post by Rainbow »

Thanks for your advice, Steve and Mark.

Fortunately it's not glossy paper, it's matt and in fact it's got a *very slight* texture. I'm hoping that the residue won't have sunk into the texture. I haven't had chance to do anything with it today but I'll try and deal with it over the weekend.

I visited a relative today and was relating my tale of woe. He said he doesn't use his kitchen blind during the summer so he took it down for me so that I can use it for the reverse roll. I'm a bit concerned that it might have hidden grease or something, but if I put some cellophane underneath the poster as well as tissue or cellophane on top, I think that should be OK.

Fingers crossed!
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