My son is doing a collage art project for school. We bought some nice artboard, colored pencils, rubber cement (the brush-on kind), found pictures to use in the collage, etc. He did most of the work this afternoon, and it looks really great, except for one thing… I had assumed he knew how to use rubber cement, and what he actually did was brush it both over and under the pictures. He assumed it would dry into a hard finish.
I don’t have the heart to ask him to redo the project, so I was wonder if there’s anything I can spray over the project that would “fix” the glue and prevent it from being forever tacky? I know it won’t last forever and ever, but if there was something that would at least rescue the project from the oveuse of rubber cement, and maybe preserve it for a couple of years?
Rubber cement will rub off of most surfaces pretty easy with a finger, or you can go to an art supply store and get a rubber cement eraser
A rubber cement pickup (looks like a flat, 2-inch-square hunk of rubber shoe sole) will remove the extra rubber cement nicely, if you use it carefully. Be warned, however, that any pencil lines underneath will come up with the cement.
I vote against the removal suggestion. (Though if you opt for it, use a “pick-up” as Scarlett & Herman suggest. They’re cheap and far better than the finger method.). Rubber cement can hold pretty aggressively. Removing it from some papers, especially flimsy or porous ones like newspaper and magazine stock, can damage or fade the image when tiny “picks” of paper and ink get pulled off with the cement. Not only that, but using a pick-up on what I imagine to be a poster-sized artwork will be a b*tchload of work.
Unfortunately, I don’t know of a fixative that will do the job you describe. I doubt it exists, frankly, short of slathering the artwork with a two-part clear liquid acrylic (epoxy?) goop they sell in some art supply stores. It’s not cheap, btw. And, you’ll need to apply a relatively thick shell, not the varnishlike coating you’re seeking. And who knows how well it will adhere to the iffy rubber cement-coated surface.
Might I make another suggestion? Cover the whole shebang with clear Contact Paper. If you want to go this route I can tell you how to do it leaving a minimum of bubbles and no wrinkles. (It’s long and hard to explain and I don’t want to waste the electrons if you’re not interested in the option.)
I vote against the removal suggestion. (Though if you opt for it, use a “pick-up” as Scarlett & Herman suggest. They’re cheap and far better than the finger method.). Rubber cement can hold pretty aggressively. Removing it from some papers, especially flimsy or porous ones like newspaper and magazine stock, can damage or fade the image when tiny “picks” of paper and ink get pulled off with the cement. Not only that, but using a pick-up on what I imagine to be a poster-sized artwork will be a b*tchload of work.
Unfortunately, I don’t know of a fixative that will do the job you describe. I doubt it exists, frankly, short of slathering the artwork with a two-part clear liquid acrylic (epoxy?) goop they sell in some art supply stores. It’s not cheap, btw. And, you’ll need to apply a relatively thick shell, not the varnishlike coating you’re seeking. And who knows how well it will adhere to the iffy rubber cement-coated surface.
Might I make another suggestion? Cover the whole shebang with clear Contact Paper. If you want to go this route I can tell you how to do it leaving a minimum of bubbles and no wrinkles. (It’s long and hard to explain and I don’t want to waste the electrons if you’re not interested in the option.)
Well, we used the “removal by finger” method this morning, and it worked quite well. The pictures had been printed on an ink-jet printer, and they seem as good as they did before the removal process. I had been worried about too much ink coming off with the cement, but it was OK. Thanks to everyone for your advice!