[BKARTS] Seeking advice on sealing and adhereing photos to wooden blocks

[Bea Pierce <bea@xxxxxxxxx>]

 Hiya,

I'm new to this list and would appreciate some advice. I'm working on a 
project at the moment which is a sort of derivative of book art, crossed 
with interactive media meets installation art. If that makes any sense!!

Essentially, I am making a series of 16 wooden (pine) bricks, each of 
which has photographs attached to the fascias. Each brick tells a story; 
the bricks as a whole tell whatever story the viewer/constructor 
creates. (The images are of walls, signage, graffiti, public art, street 
posters etc. Some are politcal messages, some are textural 'landscapes'.)

So far, I've sealed the wooden bricks with gesso and am wondering what 
to use to adhere the photos to the wood. I have PVA craft glue for 
woodworking - but I'm not sure if it's acid-free? I have another 
acid-free glue (called Helmar) which is for book binding - but I'm not 
sure whether it will adhere to wood? I also have a Xyron sticker maker - 
but again, will this adhere to wood? And with all of these things, would 
they be archival?

I want people to be able to interact with the bricks and play around 
with them - without destroying them! So I'm also looking for advice on 
ways to seal them, to prevent fingerprints and damage from handling.

I've played around with gel medium, but the one I have seems to put an 
oil slick across the photos (which are printed on Epson semi-gloss 
archival professional paper with my Epson 1290 pro photo printer FYI if 
it helps). I also played around with a crackle medium, which did nothing.

Do you have any advice on a product I could use? Some sort of varnish 
maybe? A spray-on gloss maybe?

Thanks in advance,
Bea

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