I have one other question that I'd like to ask to anyone that has some experience. Some of the papers I've played with, including some lokta, have an annoying tendency to contract and wrinkle after being MC'd. Unlike unryu, which sticks nicely to the glass until peeled off, these papers un-stick themselves while drying and contract irregularly, creating wrinkled paper of less-than-regular dimensions. I've tried using painter's blue tape to tape the edges down to the glass, but the contraction is almost always strong enough to pull the tape up, too, not to mention the difficulties in trying to pull the wet paper taut evenly from the corners! I'm concerned that anything stronger would leave residue on the glass, and of course not come as cleanly off the corners of the paper.
I've been thinking about getting a large, thick-ish sheet of acrylic that is perforated--something like this (but probably clear):
...to lay over the top of the sheet after MCing. My thought is that the weight of the sheet would prevent the contraction, but the holes would allow the paper to dry (I'm thinking that after the areas exposed by the holes would dry, the acrylic sheet would have to be shifted slightly to place the holes over still-wet parts of the paper that were under the non-perforated parts of the paper previously; repeat until paper is dry). Some poking around reveals that a custom-made sheet of 0.25 in. (0.63 cm)-thick acrylic with these kinds of perforations would run around US$200; a heavier 0/5 in. (1.27 cm)-thick sheet would cost a fair amount more.
So I'm curious if anyone has experience doing something like this, and how well it works, if at all, for these kinds of papers. Or, of course, any other successful solutions that aren't as expensive! Basically, if it doesn't work, then I'll save a couple hundred bucks experimenting myself. Thanks for any advice or thoughts!
