MITRA Forum Question Details

If you google unprimed cotton duck by the yard 84" you should find multiple results.

The cotton bed sheeting may be too thin to appropriately support the marbled paper.

I am not sure if the marbling would take to the golden absorbent ground prepared with alum in the same manner, but it may. I will shoot our contact from Golden to see if this is something that they recommend.

Brian BaadeAssistant Professor, Painting Conservator, and Researcher of Historical Painting Materials and TechniquesUniversity of Delaware

​The apparent whiter-than-white brightness of consumer textiles like bedsheets is often due to the presence of optical brighteners which may not prove durable to the expectations of artists. Just something to consider... 

You could likely adhere bed linen to a heavier canvas using an acrylic dispersion medium. However, it is often chancy to use materials not intended for the fine arts. The bed sheets may have an internal sizing which is perfectly suitable for its normal use but may make adherence of paint layers problematic. Also see Matthews comment above. Additionally,Optical brighteners are unlikely to be permanently  lightfast so that initial brightness may not last indefinitely. I will let representatives from Golden discuss their product and its applicability.

My first thought was to suggest synthetic polyester canvas instead of cotton duck, as it is very durable and bright white. You could apply alum directly to the synthetic canvas or prime first with Acrylic Gesso. I have marbeled alum-coated synthetic canvas before with acrylic paints on a methyl cellulose bath and that worked well. If you didn't trust the whiteness of the canvas than a coat or two of Acrylic Gesso would hide any possible discoloration. Acrylic Gesso has good adhesion to polyester canvas and you could also apply the Absorbent Ground on top. The MAS team at Golden has only tested alum and marbling applications of regular Acrylic Gesso, which works well. Absorbent Ground has not been tested yet, but I would not expect any problems. Although I doubt that the marbling will be any better on Absorbent Ground than on regular Acrylic Gesso. We do not recommend applying full-bodied oil paint directly onto GOLDEN Absorbent Ground, because the absorbency of the ground might leave the paint under-bound. However, in this case the paint layer of the marbling, although thin, and the residue of the marbling bath (are you using methylcellulose?) might reduce the absorbency somewhat.

If you want to adhere marbled paper onto stretched canvas, then Golden Gloss Medium should be a good choice as adhesive and 2 coats Fluid Matte Medium could be used to seal the paper surface and prevent oil stains on the paper.

Here is the Marbleizing application sheet, Painting with Oils on Paper and Painting with Oils on Paper JP articles and an article on polyester canvas:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/conservation-journal/issue-44/how-fast-do-polyester-fabrics-age-in-the-museum-environment/

Hello Angie,

I think the main point here is to not use an acrylic gel as a size when using traditional gesso on top because the materials as so unlike each other and the trad. Gesso would have poor adhesion. In your case Soft Gel Gloss would be a good choice because you already have an (acrylic ?) primed canvas and using the Soft Gel as an adhesive.