Mounting methods
From Silvergrain Labs
Contents |
Dry mount
Dry mounting is good in keeping the print flat, but it is terrible in terms of reversibility. Dry mounting may be good for easily reproducible work for display, but the choice becomes questionable if the work is precious.
300gsm or heavier paper shouldn't present much difficulty in flatness in those sizes, once curling is removed. I wouldn't dry mount those prints.
Corner mount
There are clear plastic corners you can buy, or you can make them with paper and archival PVA glue or starch paste. They can be used behind matte board, or you can show the corners if you show the entire print (to the edges). These are suitable for smaller pieces, but I've mounted many 11x14 prints with them without any problem. Of course, larger corners work better with larger prints.
A variant of corner mount may be edge mount using V-mount, which supports the edges rather than corners. (Info by Tim Rudman)
Tape mount
The work can be taped down to the backing board. However, the material and adhesive used for the tape require close attention. Most traditional choice is archival paper and wheat starch glue or PVA. More recently, Tyvek tape with archival pressure-sensitive adhesive is available, and this type of tape is very convenient to mount prints on backing board, as this type of tape is very strong.
Hinge mount
If you don't want to show anything like corner mounts, you could hinge mount at a few places along the top edge on the back of the print. IF the print is light, 2 or 3 V-hinges are sufficient and easy to do. You can make those hinges with archival paper of reasonable strength, but if your paper (for prints) comes in lighter weight, you can use those to fabricate the hinges. THe point is that you want to use enough hinges to suspend the print but you want to make the hinges weaker than the print, so that when there is mechanical stress, the hinge should break instead of the print. For best reversibility, use startch paste, but archival PVA glue can be blended if desired. I have better success with straight PVA for commercial FB papers. Obviously, these glues don't work on back of RC papers or most inkjet papers. For those, I use archival Tyvek tape.
For larger and/or heavier pieces, I have best success with S-hinges. These require to make 2-4 slits on the backing board, but the print stays at the same position for a long time, even if the mounted work is transported many times. You probably don't have to do S-hinges for 8x10 but I'd consider it if the print is large or heavy.
With either S-hinges or V-hinges, bottom corners have to be held down, especially when matt board window is larger than the print, or matt board is not used. You could use double sided adhesive tapes that claim archival, but I prefer to make them with same paper and glue. Make a little loop from a thin strip, and collapse. This also evens the spacing between the back board and the print (becaus hinges have slight space).
If you aren't familiar with starch glue, it requires certain skills to mix and use it correctly. Do practice on scrap paper and hinges made from the same paper. See how they dry and how strong it is. (But a bit of moisture is all that's necessary to reverse it.) PVA is much stronger, is suitable for heavier paper or "tough" paper, adn it is faster to work with PVA, but PVA is considered nonreversible (I think). Bookbinding people are knowledgeable in this area.
An alternative to paste is moisture activated adhesive tapes. THose are like old fashioned postage stamps that you lick to activate adhesion, but made with Japanese paper (washi). It's easier to use than paste, but the hinges have to be 1 or 2 inches in from the side edges to allow space for the tape.
