I am looking for a way to custom finish a completed photograph. I remember a technique in school (100 yrs ago) that coated the print with some sort of varnish. Recently I saw a print that had been treated this way, but the owner would not reveal the technique. All I know is that he painted the ....... on with a brush and gave the photograph a very nice textured finish. If there is anyone out there who knows about this technique and the solutions with which to do this application, I would be very appreciative. I have a number of personal photographs that I would like to treat. 1) preserving the image 2)giving it a textured look.

Fay

-- Fay Marley-Clarke (remedy@ionet.net), June 26, 2001

Answers

Varnishing prints isn't done much these days. I would think the problem would be assuring yourself that the varnish will last and not discolor or crack with time. I found the following links by doing a search on varnishing prints:

From an old article on albumen and collodion:

http://albumen.stanford.edu/library/monographs/monckh/chap11.html

From an article on varnishing paintings:

http:// www.fyi.net/~henry/writing/sa_book/sa_p1ch5.html

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), June 28, 2001.