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Question asked 2022-01-31 06:03:17 ...
Most recent comment 2022-02-07 04:07:30
Watercolor
Hello. I have been asked if the popular salt technique in watercolour painting causes damage to the paper. The method involves dropping fine or coarse table salt on wet watercolour paint to remove spots of paint by absorbing it. When the painting is dry, the salt is brushed off leaving speckles of white paper. It is not a new technique, it has been used for decades.
Does anyone know if the residual salt in the paper poses a risk of degredation?
I checked the forum and couldn't find anything covering this topic.
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Moderator Answer
(brian baade)
Hi
I have forwarded your question to our paper conservation moderators.
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Moderator Answer
(gmarcus)
Hi! I don't believe salt would necessarily cause any issues for your work; sodium chloride has a pH of 7, which means it is fairly neutral. The salt crystals themselves could cause damage to the paper fibers if they are rubbed in to the paper, or otherwise abrade the surface. You might find that the areas with salt respond differently to moisture if the piece becomes wet, but at that point you would have other issues! One thing to note - if you're buying table salt, make sure it hasn't been fortified with iodine, as that could cause unpredictable results.
Gillian
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Moderator Answer
As always, it's all relative. A paper saturated
with dissolved table salt would likely have problems in elevated
humidity which encourages salt recrystallization accompanied by
mechanical stresses. However, the amount of salt actually absorbed by
the paper from localized sprinklings onto wet watercolors is not likely
to be great. The fact that individual salt crystals remain to be
brushed away indicates little actual dissolution.
Margaret Holben Ellis
New York University/The Morgan Library & Museum
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