Re: Dry mounting

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.

Alternatives:

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 effective for smaller pieces, but I've mounted
many 11x14 prints with them with no problem. (They are more like 200gsm,
though.)

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.

If anyone knows better than these options, please let me know.

On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 18:00:55 +0100, "John Brewer"
<john@glossyormatt.com> said:
> Dear list members
>
> What are the pros and cons of dry mounting? The papers I use are 300gsm
> for 5x7 prints and 425gsm for 8x10 prints if that is of any consequence.
>
> Cheers
>
> John
Received on Mon Sep 19 12:32:19 2005