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