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Two ideas.

What about using a reflective or bright material behind the print? A bit like slickrock (I've forgotten the name of the gorgeous discontinued photographic paper that has the reflective layer). Except have a separation between the print and the reflective / bright material. Like a shadow box. Mylar or a mirror might be too much.

With the idea of printing on the back - what about a solid color? R/C lexan bodies, are painted from the inside. So the first color is the primary one seen. Then subsequent layers subtly change the color. And then finally they put a fairly heavy layer of white, black, or gray as the final layer. It completely changes the look, and gives the color depth. Maybe experiment with different solid colors printed on the back of the paper?

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Very much looking forward to following this adventure!

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I’ve backlit these translucent papers with ‘fairy lights’. Ok you’re thinking—pretty crude. And maybe you’re right but I never let the perfect get in the way of the good—or very good in this case. Is there a way to post a photo of the framed print?

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I think you can post photos in substack "threads" or whatever it's called via the app. Feel free to tag paperarts or rwboyer...

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Thanks! I gave that a whirl. Not sure how it shows up. Your page is the only thing I use Substack for so not sure of the ins and outs.

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I didn't see this when you posted it. Sorry. Yes, I've seen and used things like this as well as the slide-on strips at top/bottom... We'll probably end up using a custom wood sandwich thing we've been attempting just for a more "compatible" natural material feel with these papers. We've also stumbled onto a property of the peel-apart thin papers that we're really excited about but still quantifying what that means in terms of building a way of consistently dealing with that property and maintaining a print over time... specifically that those peel apart papers actually stick to glass and plexiglass very very flat and well when wet and left to dry... More to come on that.

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I too love these awagami papers. Eagerly looking forward to your notes on how best to present them.

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