RE: Gum Substrate

Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Tue, 5 Mar 1996 02:31:20 -0500 (EST)

On Mon, 4 Mar 1996, Philippe MOROUX wrote:

> Hello Richard,
>
> Just didn't understand the type of product you used to mount the paper on the
> formica plate. Shellac? or a kind of rubber cement?
>
> May be you can tell me more...
>
> Ah, ces grenouilles qui ne comprennent jamais rien.

Hello again,

Ah ces dictionnaires de l'annee 1940. Pour "grenouilles" on dit "frog,"
"mess-funds," et "club money". "Manger la grenouilles" veut dire "make off
with the cash"!

Oh well, let's try substrates. I was very grateful to Richard for giving
such detailed instructions for a method I'd wondered about but not yet
tried, saving me a good deal of trial and error (I hope).

The method he's talking about, Philippe, is "dry mounting," which has
been most commonly used in photography as a means of fastening a
photograph to a mat board with a sheet of heat-activated glue of some
kind. That is, you lightly tack the dry-mount paper (Seal is our most usual
brand) to both photo & matboard, then press firmly in a specially
designed heat press until well attached. (You probably call this something
else, like "taking the cash.")

Let me add that I have tried fastening a print to a rigid substrate with
shellac (as recommended in an old book). It actually worked fairly well,
that is the print stayed reasonably in position. BUT, denatured alcohol
did NOT soak the print free as had been promised, or not readily, so
releasing the print from the substrate was an all-day nightmare.

Don't use rubber cement, it's certified non-archival and soaks into the
pores of the paper, nevermore to leave.

I'd also suggest phenolic or lightweight aluminum rather than formica --
at least my experience of formica not fastened to something like your
kitchen counter is that it gets quite curly.

Now Richard says that to remove the finished print from the substrate you
simply reheat it in the drymount press. That's what remains to be seen.
There are drymount papers specially formulated to be heat-releasable, but
he hasn't specified. I have found photographs very difficult to release
from *matboard* by re-heating unless they were mounted with heat-release
paper in the first place. However, a non-paper mount could well be easier.

Richard? Anyone?

Judy

PS. I note that some people use "dry mount" to mean spraying on an
adhesive (none of which are archival as far as I know) or using a cold
mount paper, such as Gudio. I tried the latter and though it's fine for
mounting a print,if such is your desire, it did *NOT* hold at all when
used on aluminum and submerged in water. (Instant bubblewrap!)

J.