A few beginnings: Sizing Paper

This weekend, I started a few new things.

Sizing paper:

Sizing paper is a technique that is used to prepare a substrate for coating with an emulsion. The Internet is full of examples of different chemicals and materials used for sizing paper. I started with three of them.

1) (simple) Acrylic Fixative - I only read this on one site, but it seems to make sense.

I tried this method with both Canson - feuilles fineface 190g watercolor paper and some handmade Saa Paper from Northern Thailand.

So far, I have only coated the paper for Cyanotype prints, but the Saa paper benefited the most with sizing really preventing the Cyanotype emulsion from sinking in to the fibers during coating and making it much easier (and more efficient) to apply.

2) (medium) Gesso + Water - I used a 1:1 mix of Clear Gesso and Water

I tried this method also with both Canson - feuilles fineface 190g watercolor paper and some handmade Saa Paper from Northern Thailand. I love the texture it leaves the paper. The Saa paper was almost completely sealed and took the emulsion well.

3) (complex) Gelatin - I used stock standard Knox Gelatine.

I have yet to coat these papers with emulsion. But the process of sizing with Gelatin was interesting and a good learning experience. The Watercolor paper was easy with a full submersion in a cookie tray of gelatin.

The Saa paper did not take well to being submerged in gelatin. It was too fragile to remove without damage. I resorted to using a brush on method with a soft hake brush. The paper was on glass and a saturated it then VERY gently squeegeed it off and hung it to dry.