Getting down to the nitty-gritty of Suliao Xuan Ban

I See The Light is ready for mounting and framing.

To say that I'm a little apprehensive is an understatement. I' really don't want to ruin my piece in this delicate process, especially now that the piece has been adjudicated into an exhibition.  I need to have it done.

I'm employing my Suliao Xuan Ban method to make the painting appear like a float; to highlight the fragile Xuan and the starkness of my light show. This process involves the dry mounting process, when the tissue paper like Xuan is affixed onto a sheet of clear plastic.  The adhesion is provided by fusing the paper to the substrate with heat transfer fusion paper.

In the wet mount method the starch glued piece can be soaked to rid it of adhesion and begin the mounting from ground zero if a boo boo was made.  This luxury, if one can call that as such, is not afforded by the dry mount. The bonding cannot be reversed easily.

First the fusion  paper is tacked onto the clear plastic. My favorite tool for this purpose is a heating iron left over from my model airplane building days. I used this to iron on the skin to the spars of  the models.

After the backing on the transfer paper is peeled off, my attention turns to the air bubbles.  I burst them with a pin and press them flat using a rubber eraser, avoiding body oil from using my fingers.  I don't know if such precaution is necessary, but I rather be safe than sorry.

The Xuan with the painting is now laid on the bonding surface, and is ironed on through a cover sheet to avoid marring the painting.   The procedure of tacking  in place with the small iron is repeated, followed by using a regular iron for a uniform surface.  The trick in tacking now is to use sufficient heat for some fusion to take place, yet not too hot to allow wiggle room for the Xuan to shed its creases and wrinkles.  This is where tender loving care comes in. The big iron is used only after I am satisfied with the quality of the painting's surface.

A blank piece of Xuan is then bonded onto the opposite side of the plastic for white balance.

Here is the finished product in the custom frame I made,

The white border around the painting is not matte board, but rather the wall behind the frame.