FIINISHING THE MASA PAPER ELEPHANTS

My little smiling elephant.

Now that he's done, I have to say that I would do things a little differently if I did it again. I think I have a bit too much space at the top of the painting...I would move it up an inch or more. 

The final part of preserving the masa paper elephant was different from what I used to do when mounting without glass or frame. First of all, because of the crinkles in the paper, using a spray varnish wasn't enough to get into the nooks and crannies. Secondly, I couldn't use beeswax, also because of the texture of the paper. So, here is what I chose to do.

First I put a coat of Krylon Kamar varnish. (it is archival, doesn't yellow, and says it can be used on watercolors) This first spray coat "sets" the paint so that it doesn't smear on further applications of varnish.

If you want to paint in any changes, you can at this point, with fluid acrylic or watercolor pencil. or ink.

Second, I used Golden's Polymer Varnish with UVLS (Satin). It is a clear liquid, doesn't have a strong smell, like sprays do. You mix it 4:1 with water, then brush on the painting to coat it. I dried it overnight, then coated it again. Costs around $16.

Golden's makes a spray varnish also in matte, satin, and gloss. They also make a liquid varnish that is a little less expensive than the UVLS one that I could have used.

If this had been a painting on normal Arches, I would have followed the procedure in the videos: spray varnish first, then coat with beeswax (Dolmar cold wax or Gamblin's cold wax), dry, then buff. The cold wax costs about $9 for 8 oz, which is enough for probably six paintings.

Below you see the products used for varnishing a painting that is mounted without glass or frame.
The painting behind it was varnished with kamar then later buffed with beeswax.




Artist Kim Fjordbotten explains why you might want an alternative without glass or frame, then gives a simple explanation of how she does it. About 11 minutes.

(4) How to Varnish a Watercolour Without Glass - YouTube

Angela Fehr gives a good description of using heavy gel to glue down, Kamar varnish to seal, then wax to give final coat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHeDltkj9_M

A 9-minute video with Dennis Clark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8TEzRfrtWw

Brienne Brown demonstrates mounting on board

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGaDh7lffYk