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The Imaginarium of... Poster Mountain

So, we took a little hiatus the last couple of weeks because we have been swamped with projects in the back. Some of them you'll get to see on here over the next couple of weeks!

For this week's blog we have a cameo appearance. Erik is a silkscreen collector who came in for a couple of days to experience what we do here at Poster Mountain. He worked with John in the conservation department on a couple of projects. This particular one is a silkscreen poster of the movie The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. It was printed  by Mondo and the art is by Martin Ansin. It was donated by another collector and it will be given away via an inter-group lottery on the Facebook Silkscreen Poster Fans and Artists group.

The poster had some damage that was probably caused while it was rolled.

Pictured: You couldn't see the damage on this poster until I made it super big. The poster also had this same damage at regular intervals across it, which is what made John think it was damaged whiled rolled.

Pictured: Some more damage visible in the dark brown background.

Erik got to work on a couple of posters, but this one was particularly fun because it is a silkscreen and Erik collects silkscreens. (He also got to work on a Tyler Stout Iron Man poster!) He started out by getting the poster wet. When I looked through the pictures Erik's body language suggested to me that he was scared of getting the print wet. John pointed out that that's how I looked the first couple of posters that I worked on too. And I will say that it is a scary thing to start spraying water all over paper and ink. John, as usual, just makes it look easy.

Pictured: Erik unrolling the silkscreen onto the slanted capillary tables and a piece of Mylar. 

Pictured: Erik spraying the poster down. This one had spent so much time rolled that it really wanted to curl back up again.
After getting the paper wet and spraying it with a soap solution, Erik placed another piece of Mylar on top and through it massaged out some of the creases and damage. 

Pictured: Erik using his hands to soften and smooth out some of the damage.

Pictured: A close up of Erik massaging out one of the creases at the bottom of the print.

Pictured: Here is the back of the print and wet you can clearly see the same marks and damage repeating regularly down the back of the paper.
 After some mumbo jumbo, a little bit of magic and sacrificing a couple of virgins the poster was soft mounted to a melamine board to cure flat.


Pictured: I liked this photo because not only can you see the poster completely flat against the board, but also two cool six sheets in the background. We really do have a lot of cool stuff in the studio right now.
 Erik did a wonderful job working on this print. It now lays flat and all of the damage was fixed during the isinglass process. And we loved having Erik in the shop for a few days. Stay tuned in the next week or two to see Erik, John and Gabe printing a two color silkscreen right here in the studio!








It should be noted that several crucial steps in our process have been omitted. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us via email at postermount@aol.com or by phone at 818.882.1214. Also check out our websites: http://www.postermountain.com and http://www.lapapergroup.com/. Please feel free to leave comments or questions on the blog!

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