Using Utensils

Ironing Vellum

Never Call it Tissue Paper

Vellum is the magic paper used by architects, designers, and engineers for drafting their designs.

Unlike a digitally created print, after a hand drawn print is completed it’s treated like a piece of film and is only touched to make changes or copies. If kept flat and dry it’s archival properties will keep the print looking like new even twenty years later.

Vellum maybe white and semi-translucent, but never call it tissue or tracing paper. That’s like comparing a chimp to human and while they are distantly related, they’re completely different species.

Double in Size

I spent three hours ironing and photographing

Each standard sheet size is twice as large as the last (an A-size sheet is 8½ x 11″, B-size is 11 x 17″, etc.). With a little practice any of the sheet sizes can always be folded so the bottom-right title is facing out.

It’s been close to seven years since I was an engineer and had to wrestle handle and fold an E-size sheet (34 x 44″), but I did it so many time it makes folding a road map child’s play.

Reminiscing

Back in college, when it came to my drawings I was a bit of a perfectionist. I spent hours planning and drawing everything from theatrical sets to pneumatically controlled punch and die presses.

Besides washing my hands beforehand to avoid smudges, I had five different drawing pencils – each with its own hardness of lead (4H, 2H, HB, 4B, and 6B) and I even had a nail file to touch up the pencil tips.

I started reminiscing about my old drawings a few weeks ago when one of my friends was showing me her design plans for their home improvements.

Recovery Effort

When I finally dug my old portfolio out of moth balls I was horrified.

Without a place to store the drawings flat they slowly sank to the bottom of my vertically standing portfolio case and apparently laid in water while in storage in New York.

Determined to restore them I spent three hours ironing and photographing the prints. Even though the prints had been sitting in water and were creased everywhere, after a little TLC they looked great.

As I was ironing, I found it kind of ironic that out of the thousands of digital drawings I’ve created I didn’t have a single digital print in the pile. Maybe it’s because in the back of my mind I know that these hand drawn prints don’t have a digital copy on a hard drive somewhere.

Isn’t it funny how “handmade” items seem to carry more sentimental value?

In any case, let’s give thanks to the paper gods for Vellum.

— Update —

While digging around I also found some of my old art drawings: