Re: To Dry Mount or not to Dry Mount. That is the question.

John Rudiak (wizard@laplaza.taos.nm.us)
Tue, 21 May 1996 17:31:57 -0600 (MDT)

>
> So here are the questions (comments, suggestions and discussion are
> appreciated):
>
> How are others finishing and presenting their Pt/Pd prints?
> Are your Pt/Pd prints dry mounted or not?
> Are the brush strokes masked off or not?
>
> I have to admit that I'm leaning towards masking off the brush strokes
> (rubylith)
> and dry mounting so that if the prints Pt/Pd are hung side by side with the
> silver
> prints there will be a certain uniformity in presentation.
>
> As always, thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.
>
> Robert Hudyma, Email: rhudyma@idirect.com,
> Semi-Tech Microelectronics, 131 McNabb Street, Markham Ontario Canada, L3R 5V7
>

I never dry mount Pt/Pd or gold prints. Prints made from these materials
are amoung the most (if not the most) permanent works on paper, and it
seems counterproductive to do anything to them that has a chance of
lowering their life expectancy.

I either show brush strokes, or mask for clean edges depending on the
clients wishes. Aesthetics aside, showing brush strokes has the
advantage of hiding any slight fogging occuring from degraded ferric
oxalate. I wonder if this has anything to do with the vintage prints
having been trimmed and dry mounted, as the possibility of obtaining
relatively pure ferric oxalate around the turn of the century surely was
more difficult than it is today, and it is difficult today.

I generally, for my own work, mask the edges and print on oversized
paper, as I much prefer this clean look.

There's my $.02

John