Faking It

Perry Daniels has posted a great video on YouTube featuring an in-depth look at creating and weathering prop documents.  He starts off with one of the cheap Chinese copies of the grail diary from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" and proceeds to upgrade the whole thing into something far more impressive.  Given the price point, it should come as no surprise that most the of the original inserts are printed on standard printer paper.  Mr. Daniels goes through and replaces them with more realistic alternatives.  That includes hand-drawing the Petra map, using actual newsprint for the clipped newspaper articles, using real photographs, and then weathering the entire book with an airbrush wash.  

There's a lot of information packed into the video.  That includes something I've never seen before- recreating the smell of an old book using a spray from a commercial scent library.  That's next level. 

The One True Way of Aging Paper

Don't let their name fool you.  Magnoli Clothiers is one of the premier producers of movie prop reproductions in the world.  Yes, they specialize in bespoke clothing, in particular meticulously researched shirts, ties, and jackets from famous film franchises, but they do so much more than that.   The One Eyed Willy's treasure map from "The Goonies" featured in this video is a good example.  More importantly, at least for our purposes, it provides a master class in aging paper in less than three minutes.

1.  The paper is stained brown with a light spray of tea solution and immediately dried with a heat gun.   The entire process takes place on a flat working surface.

2.  This is one of the very, very few cases where burning the edges of a paper prop makes sense.  It's how the original screen-used prop duplicated the look of edge-browning caused by oxidation.  Importantly, note how controlled the process is.

 3.  General dirt and grime is recreated using pastel chalks, with particular attention to the extra material caught by creases in the paper.

4.  Finally, just for you closet pyromaniacs, some actual paper burning!  Again, it's a very fleeting, controlled exposure to recreate the scorch marks on the original prop.

This is the way.

Map Aging Tutorial

Janet at "It's a Little Like Magic" brings us an excellent tutorial on aging a pirate map.

The Hoax

Sometimes, tea staining is not enough, as a story I first came across on Boing Boing earlier this week demonstrates.

In professor T. Mills Kelly's class, students act out clever public hoaxes. But while Wikipedians are easily fooled, Redditors exposed the latest jape—Do you think my 'Uncle' Joe was just weird or possibly a serial killer?— instantly.

The short version- an attempted internet hoax quickly unraveled under examination because the organizers tried to rush things along. You can find a much more detailed look at the failed mythmaking in the original Reddit thread and the followup article at The Atlantic. It's a fascinating story, but there is one particular aspect I found interesting- the aging job on the supposed stash of newspaper articles. Sadly, it appears most of the original photographs have been removed from the Reddit thread, but this shot is still floating around.

Quite a few of the Reddit comments picked up on the dodgy aging of the newsprint. It's mottled and uneven, with some spots showing little browning while the right edge is so darkened as to look burned. The one nice touch is that notch in the upper right hand corner. It's a pretty convincing duplication of the way old, heavily oxidized newsprint crackles and tears along the grain of the paper, but the treatment isn't carried out consistently along the edge.

At a guess, I think the creator of the aged clipping was reasonably clever, but didn't have much experience with aging paper. After printing out the story on standard 20 lb. printer paper they applied the tea stain by dipping the paper in a bath and then transferred it to a flat, non-absorbent surface to dry. You'll find the directions for doing that in dozens of places, and it's what produced the heavy mottling on the left hand side of the clipping. Then they trimmed down the article to size and recreated the look of extreme edge oxidation with lemon juice and a heat gun.

For a piece of newsprint that's been allegedly stored away for years in a trunk that mottling just doesn't ring true. Since the clips allegedly date back to the mid 1890s the original newsprint would have been wood pulp. Under cover and away from sunlight it will steadily breakdown, but the process occurs very evenly as the lignin in the paper reacts with atmospheric oxygen. You wouldn't get some spots with barely any tinting and others heavily discolored. The variations would be much more gradual.

That problem could have been solved by using a slightly different staining process. To get an even, subtle tint you need to stain the paper and then let it dry very, very slowly. Dipping the paper in a bath and then drying it on a counter-top or cookie sheet can take hours, but it's still too fast.

I would have used a glass sheet as the working surface for the whole process. The first step would be to lay the paper on the glass and apply the staining solution with a sponge to the entire surface, then flip the paper and treat the other side. Let the paper get totally saturated. Then lift it up and gently float it on the layer of staining solution on the glass. Apply even pressure with a damp sponge to the paper and gently push out any air bubbles and excess staining solution from under the paper. Done correctly, the paper will mold itself to the surface of the glass under a layer of the staining solution.

Then you wait.

As the liquid slowly evaporates you'll get a very smooth and even tint across the entire sheet. By gently applying more of the staining solution along the edges of the paper you can prolong the process by maintaining the seal between the paper and the glass. That keeps the paper from lifting, limiting evaporation to just one side of the sheet and preventing any significant mottling. In the end you'll have a faux clipping that has a much more realistic oxidation tint.

In the end I don't think properly aging their prop clippings would have helped the hoaxers much. Their biggest mistake was in rushing the trailbuilding for the story with the iffy Wikipedia entries. But anyone attempting a similar project, purely for entertainment purposes of course, should be aware that there are ways to make their props more believable.

Forgotten Fragment

Daniel Heald brings us this this fantastically aged page from an Arabic tome. The mix of textures and tone values gives it a great deal of character.

Golden

Phil Bolton brings us an example of a variant paper aging technique that produces a wonderfully warm, buttery finish.

"It started life as am old pad of drawing paper that was folded, tediously brushed with steel wool dissolved in vinegar, and even more tediously stitched together. My only regret is I should have weathered the edges of the pages a lot more."

I've run across mentions of the steel wool and vinegar technique being used to age solid wood, but I never considered using it for paper. In hindsight it makes perfect sense. It's just wood of another sort, after all.

The Edge of Time

The basics of aging paper are absurdly simple- use tea to stain the fibers and allow the sheet to dry. Like many others, I learned that method in grade school and have been using it with minor variations for decades. It's quick, it's easy, and it does a reasonably good job of reproducing the browning and oxidation of old paper.

With some minor tweaks tea staining can also recreate the darkened edges found in old documents. While your sheet is still damp simply sponge more tea along the edges, allowing the paper fibers to soak up more of the tannic acid in the solution. In essence you're accelerating the natural process of wicking that causes the edge discoloration/oxidation in real fiber papers and parchments.

When trying to create the look of something truly old, like an ancient scroll, you also need to create the ragged edge produced when tiny fragments of paper break off over time. In the past I've used a deckling blade to produce that effect, but I think I've stumbled on a better method.

Previously, I would rip the paper along the deckling blade to get a rough edge and then begin the staining process. Now I stain the paper, wait until it's almost dry, and then use the sharpened end of a bamboo skewer to flake off bits of paper. Just press the point of the bamboo into the edge of the paper and tear off small pieces using a flicking motion. It sounds tedious, but once you get the hand motion down the process goes quickly.

Here's a look at the results using a standard sheet of printer paper. Just click through for a higher resolution version.


The skewer technique produced a wonderful worn edge, and the exposed fibers soaked up another sponging of tea to create the darkened oxidation border of old paper. Here's a closer look.


I experimented with some internal wear and the results were generally good. The only thing I wasn't happy with was the paper bunching seen along the edges of the wear spots, particularly the one slightly left of center. The fix for that is easy- once you've made your initial tear use the skewer tip to rip small flakes toward the center of the hole instead of ripping outward.

This all might seem a bit picayune, but it's the little details like this that help make a convincing prop. Live action props are the most difficult kind to create, more so than anything on stage or film, since they're subjected to minute, detailed examination. Paying attention to the edge treatment not only produces something that looks more realistic, but feels more realistic.

Aging Paper: Getting Rough

Artist Lisa Vollrath of "Go Make Something" has a great mini-tutorial on aging paper using abrasives like sandpaper and steel wool.

"One thing to note about sanding blocks is that they pick up the ink color of whatever is being sanded, as sort of a fine dust. This is a good thing while you’re sanding that piece, because the dust tones the piece and mellows the colors, but not so great when you move on to the next piece, whose colors may be completely different. Wipe the blocks down with a soft cloth after use to remove any loose dust. I’ve actually exploited this quality by sanding a gessoed board, then sanding a paper I wanted to lighten—the white dust gives a sort of ghostly haze to the paper."

Aging Paper: Brownish Green or Brownish Orange

One of the constant topics of paper prop creation is recreating the yellowing and browning of aged paper. For years I used a staining bath made from water and instant tea powder, but over the past couple of months I've been using a bath brewed from walnut ink crystals instead. Tonight I finally figured out why I haven't been happy with that approach- it's the color.

After a few experiments I've found that, at least to my eye, walnut ink crystals produce a shade of brown that has a green/blue cast while the brown produced by instant tea (Lipton Unsweetened Decaffeinated instant tea, in particular)has an orange/yellow tint. It's a subtle difference, but it helps explain my dissatisfaction with the walnut ink crystals. To me, brown with a greenish note denotes corruption and dirt, while brown with an orangish note conveys age and dissolution. That's an incredibly subjective judgement, of course, but one that's been subconsciously influencing my appraisal of documents produced with the walnut ink crystals from the beginning. In real life I have a severe aversion to dirt and grime. Having the staining process produce that effect, when I actually wanted an impression of age instead of dirt, helps explain my frustration.

On a related note, I'm going to try a few experiments using Diet Pepsi and Diet Mountain Dew as the liquid for staining baths. The first time the idea of using soda as the base was proposed to me I thought it was a joke, but it appears there may be some solid chemistry behind it.

Update: Tiffany over at Curious Goods has some more thoughts on the color shift:

"I don’t get the green tinge when dying with my inks – I switched to making my own ink a couple of years ago and it is a rich golden brown color. I did notice a green tinge on the walnut ink made by Making Memories, but I didn’t notice it on the ink made by 7 Gypsies. Perhaps it’s a brand related issue?"

Surprise, surprise...I just happen to be using walnut ink crystals from Making Memories, so it looks like it is brand related. After seeing examples of paper aged with walnut ink that did have a warm brownish-yellow tone I was beginning to think I was somehow screwing up the process.

Go read her entire post, because it has some great insight into the aesthetics of the aging process.

Doc also raised an interesting point in the comments that the artificial sweeteners in diet soda might promote mold growth. That doesn't trouble me too much, since I've always assumed that artificially aged paper has a shortened lifespan anyway. Nothing catastrophic, mind you, but I'd expect them to start crumbling after 20-30 years anyway. I have acid aged scrolls from 12 years ago that aren't showing any visible degradation. On the other hand, both the ones I have in my files and the ones I have displayed on the wall are shielded from UV light. I suspect the inevitable process of lignin breakdown would be significantly accelerated with even mild exposure.

If At First You Don't Succeed, Part Four

The saga continues! You can see the first three parts of project here: Part One, Part Deux, Part Three.

My walnut ink crystals finally arrived, so it's time to tackle aging my paper. The crystals themselves are a fine, black granular powder that reminds me of the instant tea powder I've used to acid age documents in the past. The difference being, at least if the tutorial pages I linked to earlier are accurate, that the ink produced when you mix the crystals with water is actually a brown dye instead of the tannic acid solution produced by tea.

After mixing a heaping tablespoon of the crystals with two cups of warm water I waited the recommended half hour and then started the aging process. Most of the tutorials I've seen for aging paper use a shallow baking pan to hold the aging solution, but I prefer to do the entire process on a glass cutting board with a pebbled texture. I saturate a sponge with the walnut ink and then swab down the cutting board with it to create a layer of liquid on the glass. Then I carefully lay my paper, in this case a 12 x 18 sheet of heavyweight drawing paper, on the sheet.

As the fibers in the paper begin to absorb the ink already on the glass I use my sponge to dampen the top of the paper. Once the sheet is fully saturated I carefully lift it off the glass and then re-apply it so that it "sticks" to the glass, using the sponge to press out any air bubbles trapped under the paper. When I'm done with this step I have a smooth sheet of wet paper that is effectively molded to the glass sheet.



See that excess liquid in the lower left hand corner? After taking this picture I went around the paper and sponged all that extra ink up. Then I walked away for a half hour and let osmosis and surface tension distribute the ink across the paper while it began to dry.

When I came back the paper was still damp, but well on the way to drying out. At this stage I did the final grunging of the sheet, splattering it with some fine droplets of bleach and a sprinkling of ink crystals. I didn't snap any pictures of this step, being leery of handling a camera with water, bleach, and fine ink crystals on my gloves, but the results looked terrible. All blotchy and nasty looking. Trust me, this is normal and nothing to worry about- as the paper dries those nasty variations will naturally tone down. After finishing the grunging treatment I went to bed, leaving the paper to dry overnight.

The next morning, this was the result:



I liked it. I liked it a lot. The paper had a wonderful mottled appearance with specks of faux-foxing from the ink crystals, while the edges of the sheet had an absolutely perfect oxidation effect from the ink being wicked there while the sheet dried. I'm so happy with that edge treatment that I'm not going to go through with the deckled finish I had planned on earlier.

Before I run the sheet through the printer I do have to do a little prep work. First, I use a stiff brush to remove any paper or ink residue from the surface of the paper. Then I use the steam from a tea kettle to lightly dampen the paper and press it under some books to make sure it's flat and won't jam on the way through. After all that I finally print out my scroll for summoning Deep Ones:

If At First You Don't Succeed, Part Deux

So, how to dirty up and distress my page from the Ponape Scriptures?

First off, I'm going to try using a dye stain technique instead of the tea staining technique I've used for years. Curious Goods has an excellent description of the basic method using walnut ink crystals, and I Googled up a few more pages describing variations aimed at scrapbookers here and here. Unfortunately, none of the local arts and crafts stores carried the crystals, so I had to buy some off Ebay. That means I'll be waiting a few days before I can tackle that aspect.

In the meantime I decided to work on the edge treatment. There's nothing inherently wrong with leaving the paper edges un-distressed, but I think roughing them up a bit will make the finished prop more believable. At the same time I want to avoid the over distressing that some propmakers, myself included, are sometimes prone to. By that I mean the grotesquely worn and excessively oxidized edges that scream "fake", particularly when the rest of the paper prop has little or no distressing. I want a happy middle ground- enough wear and oxidation to imply age, but not so much that it looks ridiculous.

That's why I decided on a faux-deckled edge treatment. Deckling is the rough, fibrous edge produced during the traditional manufacture of paper as the loose pulp is scooped up to form the sheet. There are a number of tools available to produce the effect, most of them consisting of scissors or rulers with some kind of rough edge that cuts the paper. I'm inherently cheap, so instead of buying any of the over-priced gadgets I just made one myself.

On the top, a cheap aluminum ruler I bought for $1.50 at WalMart.

On the bottom, the same ruler after a few minutes of work with my beloved Dremel motor tool.



Tada! A faux-deckling cutter for the price of a cup of coffee. After trying it out on a few different weights of paper I was pretty happy with the results. It might need to be ground out a bit more in the future, but it's perfect for the light touch I'm looking for on this project.

Update: I just realized I never described how the cutter is used. In case you were confused, you lay it flat on your document and then tear the paper along the roughened edge. The tear will then follow the little nicks and crannies of the cutting edge, as opposed to the strait tear you would get using the normal edge of the ruler.