how to flatten wrinkles on Xuan paper before painting?

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    • #13865
      罗雁 LuoYan
      Keymaster

      Sometimes due to poor packing my paper has lots of wrinkles in it.
      What is the best way to remove those wrinkles before painting?

    • #13866
      罗雁 LuoYan
      Keymaster

      How to repair the paper:

       

      Authentic Xuan  papers are mainly made from Pteroceltis Tatarinowii tree barks, rice straw, and spring water. The Pteroceltis Tatarinowii tree fibers are very long, strong, flexible, and absorbent. Although making the paper is complicated, it is mostly just boil, steam, bake work. Therefore, keep in mind that the authentic Xuan paper is not afraid of high temperature, water, etc. Therefore, if the paper is crinkled, you can use any of the following ways to repair it quickly:

      • simply leave the paper underneath a huge heavy book for a couple of days. The paper will be flattened.
      • if the wrinkles are too much, please use clean tap water and spray bottle. (sometimes, for very very valuable handmade Xuan papers, people also recommend to use bottled water.) Please put the clean water in the spray bottle. Leave the large sheet of Xuan paper on clean and flat surface (floor without carpet would be good). Then use the spray bottle to spray the water evenly on the paper. This is sort of similar to mounting process. Since the authentic raw Xuan paper always shrinks a bit if it is not ´mature´yet, it is not a good idea to make the paper too wet. Therefore, please pay attention to the amount of water you spray on the paper. My personal experience would be just to make it moistened a bit.  This methods applies to small scale repairmen and please do pay attention to the amount of water you use. You might need some experience on use this method though.
      • iron the paper like you iron your shirt. This is a very good and easy way.
    • #15536
      hanayama
      Participant

      Hi,

      I buy distilled water which is very cheap, and I use it for making glues/pastes as well as for spraying or mixing colours. There are no chemicals in it compared to tap water.

      I found misting the paper and weighing it down works very well – and I have ironed it too! For ironing, I mist it very lightly and put a clean towel on top of the painting, then use a dry iron (not steam). Then I weigh the paper down using clean dry paper on top, followed by a board with books or other weights.  A sheet of plexiglass is also great because you can see the paper underneath to check it.

      • #16287
        罗雁 LuoYan
        Keymaster

        Great idea! And, some artists in China also prepare a hairdryer in their study. The hairdryer is used for many purposes and dry xuan paper is one of the functions. 🙂

        And in fact it is even not necessary to flatten the paper. Some artists such as Fu BaoShi 傅抱石 wrinkled Xuan paper very much before he started painting. The creased paper will help create very natural textures for the painting. Next time when you want to paint rocks, try this trick and hopefully you will get a nice surprise. 🙂

    • #19801
      Felice
      Participant

      Is it possible to flatten the paper after painting or doing calligraphy? When it dries up it starts to wrinkle again but how do you get it flat?

      • #21421
        Chia-Hsiung Ho
        Participant

        You need to mount by hiring an expert, or look for DIY procedures from books or YouTube. It’s normal for Xuan paper to shrink.

    • #19802
      罗雁 LuoYan
      Keymaster

      It is normal for the painting to wrinkle. This is why you need to mount your painting. You do not need to frame it finely with silk but you need to mount it with natural glue. Once it is mounted, the painting is flat automatically. Some people use silicon and iron, we do not recommend this because it doesn’t last long and it will harm the painting later. We recommend you to make glue and use it to mount it. see this article:

      Mounting Materials and Tools

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