Purchase of icon prints: help

[Ioannis Christodoulou]

Hello ,

I have built a icon stand for home and am seeking to purchase sheet printed icons 4 x 6 in size, no laminating, so i can fix them to timber, then shellac over them.

The icons I am seeking are the life of our Lord Jesus as displayed in most orthodox churches, along the top of their iconstand in front of the alter, or iconostasis

I am looking to purchase the set of Icons of the Great Feasts of Christ's Life: Annunciation, Nativity, Transfiguration, and Theophany. Icons of Parables, and events.

I will attach a photo of the icon stand in the coming days.

Would anyone know where I could purchase them? I would be very grateful

Yours in Christ

Ioannis

[Ioannis Christodoulou]

http://www.monachos.net/forum/picture.php?albumid=198&pictureid=1412 [/img] http://www.monachos.net/forum/picture.php?albumid=198&pictureid=1411 Photos of the un-finished icon stand.http://www.monachos.net/forum/picture.php?albumid=198&pictureid=1410 [http://www.monachos.net/forum/picture.php?albumid=198&pictureid=1415 /img]

[Kusanagi]

a fantastic and tidy looking icon corner, i can learn much!
but i was thinking isnt it more suitable to print off the icons you require?

[Andreas Moran]

Olga is the best person to advise, but I can say that I have found good icons when doing a Google image search, and if you save an image and print it off onto good photo paper (semi-gloss I find is suitable), the result is quite satisfactory.

[Ioannis Christodoulou]

Olga is the best person to advise, but I can say that I have found good icons when doing a Google image search, and if you save an image and print it off onto good photo paper (semi-gloss I find is suitable), the result is quite satisfactory.

Thank you for your reply. You said "Olga is the best person to advise." Do you have a contact for Olga? Currently I do not have any prints to work from, so any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Ioannis

[Ioannis Christodoulou]

a fantastic and tidy looking icon corner, i can learn much!
but i was thinking isnt it more suitable to print off the icons you require?

Thank you Kusanagi. This Icon stand is dedicated to the Theotokos.

It has taken me amost 2 1/2 years to get to this stage. The bottom was made first and the sides and finally the roof. It is all solid timber made from T&G cypress pine with 4 coats of shellac applied. With Gods help all I need it to complete the outside top edge. There is also an almost complete liturgical library that comes with it. The library was a lot larger than anticipated. The icon stand disassembles into 4 large pieces. Yours in Christ Ioannis

[Niko T.]

I'm not sure if you could order laminated icon prints and remove the plastic somehow (e.g. from http://www.aperges.com/company.php?lang=en), but if you're going to be printing out the icons yourself, the following sites I've seen have many high resolution icons available for free: http://www.eikonografos.com/album/, http://www.srpskoblago.org/Archives/, http://www.rel.gr/photo/index.php?cat=2

[Ioannis Christodoulou]

Thank you for you help. I now have a starting point and maybe able to Get some prints off off the web sites.

Thanks once again.

Yours in Christ
Ioannis




I'm not sure if you could order laminated icon prints and remove the plastic somehow (e.g. from http://www.aperges.com/company.php?lang=en), but if you're going to be printing out the icons yourself, the following sites I've seen have many high resolution icons available for free: http://www.eikonografos.com/album/, http://www.srpskoblago.org/Archives/, http://www.rel.gr/photo/index.php?cat=2[/QUOTE]

[Olga]

Hello Ioannis, and welcome to the forum.

As Andreas mentioned, I'd be happy to help you. Best to PM me through the forum, click on my username in this post, and it will take you to my profile page. My icon archive is huge, from all over the Orthodox world, old and present-day, common and obscure, and all of them canonical. I can save you a lot of searching for particular icons.

Don't be in a rush to mount icons yourself just yet. There are quite a few pitfalls, especially if you want to mount inkjet prints. I can help you with this.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

[Ryan]

For anyone interested, I tried mounting an icon myself today and the results are pretty good! I got a plain wooden plaque from a crafts store (Michael's). I had the icon printed at a print shop. I prepared the plaque with a special red wood-staining marker. I then simply cropped the print to fit the plaque and decoupaged it on using Mod Podge- satin. I applied some of the Mod Podge to the wood first and then, once the print was in place, I put a couple of layers on top of it, starting from the center, which seals it. Any bubbles I rubbed out with my fingers- gently enough so that the ink didn't run. Overall, the supplies (all of them re-usable except for the plaque) cost me about $14.00. If anyone is feeling crafty and is a bit daunted by expensive mounted icons, I would recommend giving it a try.

[Father David Moser]

For anyone interested, I tried mounting an icon myself today and the results are pretty good! I got a plain wooden plaque from a crafts store (Michael's). I had the icon printed at a print shop. I prepared the plaque with a special red wood-staining marker. I then simply cropped the print to fit the plaque and decoupaged it on using Mod Podge- satin. I applied some of the Mod Podge to the wood first and then, once the print was in place, I put a couple of layers on top of it, starting from the center, which seals it. Any bubbles I rubbed out with my fingers- gently enough so that the ink didn't run. Overall, the supplies (all of them re-usable except for the plaque) cost me about $14.00. If anyone is feeling crafty and is a bit daunted by expensive mounted icons, I would recommend giving it a try.

A slight variation on the above - copy the print to a CD, take it into Kinko's (or some similar place) and have the icon printed on a color laser printer. While the inks in an inkjet will fade over time with exposure to light - the toner in a laser printer does not have that problem. And since toner is essentially plastic heat fused to the paper, it will not run.

Fr David Moser

[Olga]

A slight variation on the above - copy the print to a CD, take it into Kinko's (or some similar place) and have the icon printed on a color laser printer. While the inks in an inkjet will fade over time with exposure to light - the toner in a laser printer does not have that problem. And since toner is essentially plastic heat fused to the paper, it will not run.


Just be aware that the accuracy of colour reproduction of even commercial colour laser printing is inferior to that of a mid-range domestic inkjet printer, in part because of the paper stock used. In addition, colour laser will give very clear, sharp printed text (unlike inkjet), but this very sharpness is also a drawback which an inkjet doesn't have when printing images.

Any printed image (laser, inkjet, offset) will fade over time when exposed to strong light. If the icon is kept or hung indoors, fading is not a problem at all, unless the icon is directly opposite a window. To prevent the water-based inks running, the answer is simple. Don't use a water-based lacquer or medium when coating it. For years I have been using a spirit-based varnish (which also contains an ultraviolet filtering agent to further minimise fading). It may take longer to dry between coats than a water-based lacquer, but it will give a much more durable finish, and with fewer coats.

[Ioannis Christodoulou]

I have been using 3M™ Repositionable Spray Adhesive 75. Once applied to the timber or what ever surface I am sticking the icon to, I wait about 10 – 15 minutes for it to dry. Once it’s dry, I can carefully position the icon in place and firmly rub over with a soft cloth. The great advantage with repositionable glue is firstly it keeps the paper icon or print dry and easy to work. Secondly if you incorrectly position the icon, you can unpeel the icon from the material and reposition it without any damage to the printed icon. All the small icons which represent each day of the month have been applied in this fashion. (on the icon stand pictured) You must ensure that the edges of the icon a pressed down firmly otherwise, when applying finishing coats to the work it can seep in behind the icon making it noticeable. I normally leave the icon once it is fixed to the timber to harden for a day or 2 and then I apply shellac, up to about 4 coats. This also gives the icon antique look. Hope this may be help.

Yours in Christ.
Ioannis

[Father David Moser]

A technique that can be used for really high-quality mounted prints is to take the print and cut the image itself out of the background and then glue it to a well prepared piece of wood (as already described). Shave or sand the edges of the paper so that they are minimal. Once the image is in place, then prepare the board as you would to paint an icon (smooth it, apply gesso, etc) even overlapping a bit with the paper so as to cover the seam with gesso and then hand paint the background and lettering onto the board as it was in the original print. The lettering may take some practice, but brush calligraphy is not all that difficult a skill and there are many instructional materials available. Depending on your confidence and artistic ability, you might also want to cut the printed halo (nimbus) off the icon and reapply it with gold leaf. When finished, seal the whole thing with varnish and it will look very much like a hand painted icon.

Fr David Moser

[Elena]

Hello ,

I have built a icon stand for home and am seeking to purchase sheet printed icons 4 x 6 in size, no laminating, so i can fix them to timber, then shellac over them.

The icons I am seeking are the life of our Lord Jesus as displayed in most orthodox churches, along the top of their iconstand in front of the alter, or iconostasis

I am looking to purchase the set of Icons of the Great Feasts of Christ's Life: Annunciation, Nativity, Transfiguration, and Theophany. Icons of Parables, and events.

I will attach a photo of the icon stand in the coming days.

Would anyone know where I could purchase them? I would be very grateful

Yours in Christ

Ioannis

http://www.conventofsaintelizabeth.org/byzicons/print/print.html