double sided tape or adhesive

[janelewis]

I am float mounting my own largish watercolours (55x75cm) by using foam board as a 'float' and mount board as a backing. Using archival double sided tape (which is what I have to hand) is not always proving strong enough so the foam board is coming away from the mount board (not helped the weight of the w/c paper). Can anyone suggest a strong adhesive I can use to secure the mount board to the foam board? I assume it doesn't need to be of archival quality as it is not touching the w/c? Thank you!

[John Ranes II, CPF, GCF]

...Using archival double sided tape (which is what I have to hand) is not always proving strong enough so the foam board is coming away from the mount board (not helped the weight of the w/c paper)....

Hi Lewis,

"Archival Double Sided tape" is a bit of an oxymoron. Anything that is self-adhesive / self stick is not archival by industry standards definitions.

... Can anyone suggest a strong adhesive I can use to secure the mount board to the foam board? I assume it doesn't need to be of archival quality as it is not touching the w/c? ....

Indeed I would agree, so that dry-mounting the foam board to the mount board or using a white PVA or a permanent self-adhesive foam core should all work. Actually, I would dry-mount the mount board to a 3mm foam board first, and then mount the "floating" 3mm foam board on top of this rigid background (very solid). To be truly archival/preservation for this the watercolour, I would also have mounted a layer of 4ply rag board on top of the 3mm floating foam board.* (So that is four layers below the watercolour.)

* FATG and PPFA Guidelines / Standards

You didn't mention how you mounted the watercolour to the floating element, but blind hinges passed through the substrate would probably work best.

Regards,

John