[Scriptoris] Humidity and scrolls

[Kimberly Langhans]

I live in Houston, where the humidity is high pretty much all the time, and have never had problems with my charters sticking together, even when our house flooded in Tropical Storm Allison and we had a soaked first floor and no A/C for days. I only use W&N gouache, I never use desiccant, and while I *usually* keep my charters in a plastic box, I don't *always* do that, yet I still don't have issues with charters sticking.
 
However, during previous stints as Sable Scroll (both while I lived here and when I lived in Dallas, where it is less humid), I have, on rare occasions, seen charters stick together if:
 
- The artist used paints other than W&N (not sure what the brand was, but it looked like it might have been acrylic).
- The artist used some kind of non-standard metallic paint or ink. Again, I'm not sure what brand was used, but I've seen scrolls where JUST the gold stuck, so it was clearly something about the gold color that was the issue.
- The artist used gold leaf and the gesso appeared to rehydrate, causing the charters to stick together.
 
Or - and this might be your issue - I've seen W&N gouaches stick if there's too much glycerin in them. W&N goauche usually has glycerin in the tubes to help keep the paints wet. It's the clear substance that you see at the top of some new tubes of paint. You have to pour that off, or your paint will stay wet FOREVER.
 
Did all your paints stick, or just certain colors? If it was just certain colors, that might indicate that the glycerin was an issue - some tubes have more glycerin in them than others. If it was all your colors, then I am just as flummoxed as you are.
 
Certainly, it's worth trying desiccant and keeping your scrolls in a covered box. Good luck!
 
Sara

--- On Wed, 10/14/09, Celestria leDragon <celestria.ledragon at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Celestria leDragon <celestria.ledragon at gmail.com>
Subject: [Scriptoris] Humidity and scrolls
To: "Ansteorra Scribes" <scriptoris at lists.ansteorra.org>
Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2009, 1:34 AM


I had painted baronial awards in an envelopes I pulled them out to scribe
names and dates for our event and they were stuck together and when I tried
to gently take them apart the paint came off. The paint was tacky. They were
painted months ago and dry when put away. Never had this happen before. Not
a happy scribe!!!

What suggestions do you have on storing them? I had them in envelopes
according to award.

Thanks
Celestria
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