I’m in Honolulu, have a customer calling from Chicago, he will have a commercial artist provide some laminates or artwork that I’m to put in his new ten footer.
What is the business designation for the paper on which the art is to be printed? I’ve always heard it called “rice paper” but I can’t go to a stationery store in Chicago and say “Gimme ten sheets of rice paper” and expect the right stuff.
Fiberglass Hawaii, d**m their hide, refuses to identify what they sell. The girl at Hawaiian Graphics (which has discontinued selling the material) says it is “100 percent rayon” made by ANW in Japan, catalog number 70480, and described as “silky heavy paper”. Hmmmm, no rice in it at all!
What is the proper name for this stuff in the trade? Is it the same as the model airplane guys used to call “silkspan” before they all turned to mylar, which obviously I can’t use.
This guy is having a big time company, one whose movies we all watch(our kids anyway) do the art - so it’s a big time deal (at least with little ol’ me) and I wanta get it right.
It’s not the same as silkspan, although I’ve heard of silkspan being used for the same purpose.
Tell them to look in the calligraphy section, it usually says “rice paper” right on the label. Not sure how much truth there is in labelling paper products, but who cares?
Better yet, why don’t you just have the guy send you a file or disk instead?
The stuff I have been using is “SUMI-E painting sketch paper” on the cover it also says:
6-J/M WRITING OR DRAWING PAD
size 12"x18" (i cut it down to size)
Made in Japan
Imported by Yasutomo & Co.
490 Eccles Avenue
S.O. San Francisco CA. 94080
I live in Milwaukee WI, not very far from chicago and I get it at an art store here called Atrist and Display.
it is maybe a little on the heavy side for logo paper but it runs through my lazer printer and the color lazer printers at Kinko’s just fine with no need to tape it to a heavier sheet of paper. With lighter papers I tried I had some problems with the toner (lazer printer pigment) coming off prior to or during lamination, so if the customer is sending you the actual logo laminates instead of a computer file it might be a better choice. Edges are slightly visible on darker backrounds, invisible on white and pastels.
thanks for the responses, guys, but I really can’t expect an artist in a commercial environment to email me his images. Intellectual property, right? Misuse won’t be by me, but the artist doesn’t know me from Adam.
We will try get some calligraphy paper and see how it goes.
Why not? “intellectual property” or not, he’s far better off having you sign a one-page license or plain-English agreement as to its use than simply trusting you with hard copies (which can just as easily be digitized and misused) and having no enforceable agreement. Why don’t you ask him if he’d be willing to send you the file and let you deal with it appropriately, instead of him finding the right paper, the right ink, the right printer, and learning how to do it one-time-only.
Just my 2 cents worth. Let each expert do his part… good luck,
Have the artist do his thing at 1:1 and then scan the image into Corel or Adobe. Print it on the rice paper yourself. I doubt if any commercial artists in this country (not in this biz) have ever worked with rice paper. They’re probably going to give you a hard time about bleeding, smearing, etc. If they paint or airbrush the image, you’ll be trying to get out the wrinkles forever.
Ix-nay, Brian K. Bleach free or acid free paper is “archival” in that it won’t turn yellow and spotty with age, like most of my college textbooks. Also, tissue paper (in engineering it used to be called “bumwad” but now we all draw electronically) won’t go transparent when wetted with resin.
I tried some tissue/tracing paper, as my draftsman was nice enough to create a trial logo and set up the company inkjet plotter to run off a trial version.
No, laminates have to have a specific characteristic: they wet out transparent. I’m sure there are many manufacturers, and some “let your fingers do the walking” will turn up what the common characteristic property is.
As for receiving the images via email, I just might, who knows? Because of the need to deliver as a Christmas present, the board is now laminated and lying on the racks in my garage, next to another short-delivery 8’6".
You are going to have a few problems, here is why:
First, if they do go to the art store there are probably 100 different kinds of rice paper available (especially in a big city art store like you’d find in Chicago) 98% of those are going to be decorative with weird textures, watermarks, and all sorts of crap mixed into it. There may be one or two kinds that would work, however its still a crapshoot.
Second, ricepaper that we have used has always come in packages that only have writing in Japanese, it really puts a damper on calling the guy up and saying go get such and such brand.
Third, printing on rice paper is kind of tricky as we all know, however people in the art world…well let’s just say it can be problematic…
My advice to you would be:
Print it yourself if you can.
Have the rice paper shipped to him. Fiberglass Supply can do that for you.
Howzit Honolulu, The graphics are for a board you are going to make for him? I don't think there will be a problem having him e-mail them to you. Sure they are his property and let him know that you have no intention of using them afterwards. People give me their art work to print logos all the time and since they are usually some what personal there's no reason why you would use them for somebody else. Explain to him the difficulty of him getting the right paper in Chicago and that you have it available in Hawaii which makes everything easier. I did some lam work for a guy in Florida that visits and buys boards from one of my shapers. Ask him if he's done this type of work with rice paper before, if he hasn't then tell him you have done it and it would be easier and faster if you do the work. I just got an order for a logo this morning and will have it done by noon since the board goes to the glasser tomorrow. Aloha,Kokua