The Framers Forum

Hello,

I need some advice on float mounting. I have made a frame with a spacer for a customer an float mounted their print. I used hinges on the top of the print but the print has fallen down slightly, the tape came away from the art and not the back board it was mounted to.

The print is on a thin graphic paper and the ink is full bleed on the paper. I wondered if the print wasn't dried out fully or whether my tape was too heavy weight for the paper. The customer hung the work over a radiator so that might also have been an issue if the print wasn't fully dry.

I could also use pass through Y hinges.

Does anyone have any advice on the type of tape for different types of paper?

Gabrielle

It might be helpful to know a little more about the printing process, or the nature of the paper used. If this is a digital print it may have been made on a coated ink jet paper and this can be a problem attaching hinges using a water based adhesive. If this is a conservation framing job, I am thinking that using self adhesive tape for hinging is not necessarily safely reversible. Personally I only ever use water based adhesive to attach hinges to artworks on paper, so self adhesive hinging is very often a no no for me!

Above a radiator is asking for exactly this problem especially if you're using a self adhesive tape, it will fail, the heat just speeds up the process. Gummed tape would always be better, but I firmly advise customers not to put artwork above a heat source or in full sun.
I recommend that you have a look at the Hedgehog techniques for floating work. Lions have a good information sheet on it in their resources section of the website. Its called something like Hinging Heavy artwork or artwork on heavy paper. It's the best technique i have found and gives a few options for a flat float or a shadow float, which is very popular.

If you are one of those who uses gummed paper tapes for hinging some items. It might be worth bearing in mind that very often the thickness of the layer of gum increases with heavier weight gummed paper tapes. There are a few white gummed paper tapes and not that many are actually of true conservation quality. Hinging artworks on thin paper is often not easy as there is a greater risk of cockling of the artwork paper and an increased potential for the hinges to be visible through very thin artwork papers.

Even feed through hinges can be a little too easily visible through some very thin papers. It can be helpful to use a mount board with is the same colour as the paper used from the hinges, the idea being that the hinges are less easy to distingush from the mount board behind the thin paper of the artwork. Some digital print papers can be a bit glossy on both sides and very difficult to stick hinges to!

We are not magicians and there are times when we need to explain this to our customers!

Thanks all,

I am finding out more about the actual paper and printing process. I want to confirm exactly how it was done.

Justintime, I will look at the Lions hedgehog method, and use gummed tapes instead on this. I will also discuss the risks with floating and heat with the customer.

Gabrielle

The paper used for the ink jet print was actually Hahnemühle Photo Rag and 308 GSM so quite a cotton like texture.

That certainly does not sound like a problem paper type! I wonder what is causing the problem!

HI Gabrielle,
It's not so much an issue of floating and heat, heat affects all framing work, it'll warp mountboard, cockle artwork inside the mount etc. It's simply the natural effects of extreme of temperature and humidity changes within the frame package. We have some customers who live in houses that may have an uninsulated thick outside stone wall which is cold in winter despite the heating being on. We have seen similar issues from work hung on these cold external walls. Apart from ensuring there are bumpers on the back to allow air flow behind the frame and advising the customer about the potential issues, there's very little more we can do.

That’s interesting Justin,

The print was hung on an external wall.
I’ll look at bumpers, and try the hinging again with gummed tape hedgehog method and see how it goes. I’ll discuss the risks with the client and take it from there.

Thanks, Gabrielle

If there's enough room inside the frame adding some foamboard inside the frame might prevent some degree of the cold from outside uninsulated walls. I've never done this myself, but it was just something which has occurred to me.

I can't find the useful info section on the Lion website anymore? I think it used to be called the 'info store'? Is it just me

https://www.lionpic.co.uk/content/infos ... y-2019.pdf
It's in the info store, which I can only find via the website sitemap...

Got it now, thanks

This link is really helpful. Thanks also.

Mark, I may mount on a foamboard separation.

Without seeing what you are doing, I would say that I would at least be cautious. Foamboard is not usually a presentation type material in it's self and It is much more normal to float mount on to mountboard. My main question at the moment would be why does using foamboard solve the problem of hinging on to your customers artwork. Are there still issues here which have not yet been solved?

Something like an FO6 Wessex foamboard is a lignin free face paper buffered board, it's fine for conservation mounting and is 5mm, useful when a deep shadow float mount is required.

Thanks Justin.

O.K., So where have we got to? There's a potentially credible suggestion that this might have somethings to do with cold exterior walls and a suggestion, it sounds like something scientically reasonable might be happening. So far, so good! I don't know that we would necessarily call this proven, or potenially provable. So what's the next move? So far, we have two suggestions, which may, or may not be heading in the general direction of suspressing the suspected condition, which might be causing this problem.

One suggestion is bumpers on the reverse face of the frame and the other is using foamboard in the back of the frame to try to avoid excessive heat loss through the rear of the frame. Is there any general concensus about this and if so knowing that both of these suggestions are not likely do anything harmful to the situation, it this our best suggestion at this time. I'm still wondering if there are any other recommenations worth offering for this situation.

Speaking for myself, this is not something which have any experience of any clear understanding of, but in the absence of anything more definite I'm inclined to view the suggested connection with the picture being hung on a cold exterior wall as being a possibility worth taking seriously. Another possible suggestion from me would also be to try the picture on another wall, which is not a exterior wall.

What's everyone else thinking?

And the work was hung above a radiator.
Mark, I read your last post in the voice of John Cleese in Life of Brian "What have the Romans ever done for us?"