I love ClearShield so don't get me wrong. It's a great product for coating giclée prints on paper or canvas. However, you have to take a few precautions as you do with anything really.
ClearShield is a liquid laminate made by Clear Star Corporation (www.clearstarcorp.com). When it cures it is a lot like SaranWrap®. Its properties seem to be like that legendary food wrapping so the result is a bonding of tough, impermeable film.
A hot-press or cold-press lamination is way better if only because of the coating thicknesses available which are considerably greater than the film provided by 'liquid lamination' coatings. Sure, you could do multiple coatings but that's impractical beyond a certain point. We get good results using three coats when rolled and 10-12 coats when sprayed. Whether rolled or sprayed ClearShield has a tendency to 'coagulate' into snot-like strands. There's no avoiding it because of the chemistry involved. Liquid laminates not only evaporate but they also 'cure'. That is, their chemistry changes when they are exposed to air. So these strands start to happen up around the inside top of the storage container.
If you roll on ClearShield, pour the fluid on to the star-grate pan part of the tray so that the grating grid catches the strands. You can then pluck them out with toothpicks.
If you're spray on the liquid laminate filter the fluid through some stainless steel pot-scrubbing material available at professional chef shops. Place a piece in a funnel and pour the liquid through it into an intermediary container, not directly into the sprayer reservoir. Pour it through another filter bit from the intermediary container into the sprayer reservoir container.
The filter will catch the snotty little devils before they have a chance to clog up your sprayer. Have a container of water nearby and if you encounter a blockage immediately point away from your artwork (to avoid shooting a blob onto the surface)and shut off the spray. Remove the reservoir container of liquid laminate and start spraying clear water through it. If you catch it in time you'll be able to blow out the bit of flotsam that's bedeviling you. If the flotsam gets shot onto the art you can pluck it off with a toothpick if you act fast. 'Fraying' the tip of a toothpick by biting it increases it's 'pluckability'.
While the ClearShield is in the sprayer reservoir it's a great time to clear the storage container by shaking it vigorously with water and using bits of filter to wipe the inside clear of strands.
All coating procedures can be done using remarkably little water. Today I shot two matte canvas giclees, one a 40X60-inch and the other a 72X18inch panorama. Each received 12 coats of gloss ClearShield Type C (for giclées). Less than 1/2 liter or water was used, including sprayer cleaning.
The spent and sullied waste water is highly poisonous stuff and should not be tossed onto the ground or into the sewer. Instead, evaporate it in a wide shallow pan. At my giclée printing company, Vashon Island Imaging (www.vashonislandimaging.com), we use a 16X20 photo-printing tray that's about 3 inches deep. It never gets full and if it ever does we'll get a bigger tray.
One more thing, the spray is as poisonous as the waste water. Don't breath it. At Vashon Island Imaging we have an outdoor spray booth. If you work indoors be sure the ventilation is working. It's always a good idea to wear goggles for your eyes and a breathing mask. Also avoid skin contact with the stuff.
There's a whole lot more about coating giclée prints in my book Giclée Prepress - The Art of Giclée (ISBN 9780-9865-75112, 272 pages, 477 pictures). Check it out at www.gicleeprepress.com. There's a big down-loadable pdf preview including an entire section of the book about the study of light and traditional photo-mechanical reproduction techniques as they apply to digital imaging in general and giclée prepress work in particular.
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