Hello all. I have a quite specific question that I was hoping someone might be able to help with. I am doing an exhibition of very large, very delicate prints on Awagami Murakumo Kozo Select paper. The paper itself is only 42gsm, but it takes ink very well despite its size. Still, in dark areas the ink density is enough to cause ripples in the prints. The prints I am making are 170x220cm, printed across two rolls. They are wall sized...I have made one already and it looks great, but in the shadow areas there are some ripples that are visible, particularly when viewed on an angle. I did not experience this issue in my "small" test of roughly 85x65cm. If the prints were small, I would just put them in a heat press, but these are obviously way too large for that. I also did an experiment trying to iron them with a clothes iron and no steam (with a interleaving sheet between), but that did not really do anything and I did not want to push the heat too far on my glass table. I have tried reducing the color density to -30%, but it does not seem to make a huge difference, at least on the plain paper test. I have been trying not to waste the Awagami paper, as it is expensive and I can only get three prints on a roll. Does anyone have any other thoughts? I know this kind of work is somewhat Sisyphysian, but it is my MFA graduation show, and the huge, immersiveness of the large prints and ethereal qualities of the paper match my thesis topic and book very well, so I am reluctant to give up.
The smaller print was rolled up for transport for a show in Berlin, so it sat rolled up for at least a few days...I wonder if that helped remove the ripples. I read of an instance where someone rolled prints between two glassine sheets immediately after printing to help remove this sort of issue. I am willing to entertain suggestions. It is not such a big deal for the first image, but one or two of the others have large areas of black ink, where it will be much more noticeable.
