Portfolio book alternatives for 20 print project?

[Jeff Bannow]

I am in the process of printing up a series of work from my recent trip through South Dakota. There will be B&W prints, some Van Dyke brown prints, and some color prints mixed together. I would estimate 12 - 20 4" x 8" prints.

I would like to give a few of these sets as gifts, and am thinking about my options. I was going to go with something like an Itoya presentation portfolio - 24 pages for around $20.

However, I would prefer to have a more book-like presentation. I am thinking of say a blank book that I could paste into. It would need to be archival and in the $20 range.

Has anyone done this before?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I've made a small portfolio of prints in a Kolo album. They come in various sizes and binding types. I've posted photos of it in this thread--

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

--and there are some other ideas about making books there as well.

 

[Jon Shiu]

Hi, you might consider stitching your own book together. It is not hard to do. I did 5 for family gifts a few years ago.

Jon

 

[Jeff Bannow]

I've made a small portfolio of prints in a Kolo album. They come in various sizes and binding types. I've posted photos of it in this thread--

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

--and there are some other ideas about making books there as well.

Those Kolo books look like they would work well. I will have to look into that some more.

Did you have any luck using the starch adhesive?

 

[Jeff Bannow]

Hi, you might consider stitching your own book together. It is not hard to do. I did 5 for family gifts a few years ago.

Jon

I thought about that, but was concerned about the amount of effort involved. I'll look online for some tutorials.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I haven't quite perfected the starch adhesive. It's good stuff, but takes a little more practice to do neatly.

 

[Jeff Bannow]

I haven't quite perfected the starch adhesive. It's good stuff, but takes a little more practice to do neatly.

Did you end up dry mounting then? I would prefer to do photo corners, but I don't think they will stay put when the pages are turned.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Yes, that book is dry mounted.

 

[Jeff Bannow]

Yes, that book is dry mounted.

Do you have any issues with pages staying flat, turning pages, etc?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Not at all. Dry mounting to pages makes for a very neat presentation.

 

[Jeff Bannow]

Not at all. Dry mounting to pages makes for a very neat presentation.

Excellent.

Thanks for the input.

 

[reellis67]

I use a product called StudioTac, that I buy from DickBlick. It comes in dry sheets and is applied to the back of the print first and then you can place the print on the page, apply pressure with a brayer (I use a rubber roller for inking type) and it's done. I use this to make stereographs, but I don't see any reason why it could not be used with a book like what you are talking about. The edges stick very well so turning the pages should not cause peeling, but if you don't have a dry mount press (like you're truly) it's a good alternative.

- Randy

 

[frotog]

You could also try the rollataq system from Daige. Daige makes a variety of dispensers for their non-yellowing, acid-free adhesive. The smallest one is a little hand-held roller that costs around $20. The adhesive is water soluble, non-brittle and re-positionable. You coat the back of the print and then use a brayer to fully activate the adhesive. I used the desk-top version of this system to mount a bunch of RC prints onto matboard - worked like a charm.

 

[danschmidt]

I like dry mounting into spiral bound black covered watercolor pads.

this one is really cool because it alternates watercolor and thinner sketch paper (which sort of acts like a partially transparent interleaving sheet)

http://www.utrechtart.com/dsp_view_product.cfm?item=20333

It takes a little while to take apart the book for mounting and then put it back together, but it is not that hard

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Do you have to take it apart? With my Kolo book, I left it stapled and just opened it up to the page I wanted to mount, folded back the other pages, and put the single page in the press.

 

[danschmidt]

You don't have to take it apart, but i find easier to work with apart, and I can reorganize the pages if i want to.