Giclee

Coating: Protecting your giclee

While watercolor and resin coated giclees can be left without coating, canvas has to be protected. I will discuss both watercolor and canvas.

Watercolor

I am against putting any sort of coat on watercolor paper. This is a personal preference. I feel that a natural cotton rag print looks at its best when it resembles a watercolor. If the paper is acid free and printed with pigments, archivabilty should not be a problem. This said, there are options available to spray or run the watercolor through a machine if the prints needs to be displayed without glass. Original watercolor needs glass protection. Hence, I do not feel a giclee should be treated differently.

Canvas

Canvas giclees are a totally different story. No matter what you are told you MUST coat canvas. Why? For many reasons: First, the obvious fact that most canvas is stretched and displayed without glass. A degree of scuff and UV protection is therefore imperative. Second, canvas with optical brighteners will yellow over time without a coat. Third, coating enhances the blacks and overall saturation. This said, I am amazed when I see some companies shipping uncoated prints. The only time a canvas giclee should not be shipped coated is by the client's request, when the artist is planning to paint over and coat himself.

Coating options

Prints can be sprayed with a solvent varnish or a water based compound . These coating chemicals are also available in different forms as liquids. The liquid form can be put in a machine or rolled on. If you have a high volume daily output, a machine makes the most sense. A good liquid coat machine runs close to $10,000 and upwards, depending on options such as an IR drier.

As for the spray, you can either buy cans or a spray gun. Dilution is tricky with spray guns and a spray booth is advisable. Turbine sprays are excellent as they do not inject moisture in the pressurized air. I am a big fan of spray guns but do not go for cheap systems: a good automotive grade spray system costs at least $1,000.

Rolling is time consuming but when done right it yields perfect results. Machines of course put in a perfect coat but, trust me, they also ruin a few prints. Everyone we talked to has bad and good things to say about their automatic rollers.

One option available which we are still looking at is heat activated lamination. There are a few manufacturers who claim they make presses and materials with archival characteristics for giclees. I am still skeptical about this. Yellowing and cracking over time are a concern.