Removing glass stuck to picture?

[Rainbow]

A customer has given me two miniatures to re-frame. They are new watercolours, framed by the artist with the glass directly against the art, no mount. On one of them, the glass has stuck to the paper. I wouldn't be surprised if the paint wasn't quite dry when it was glazed and framed

On this occasion the customer can see the problem and is happy to have them re-framed as they are, but for the future, I wondered if there are techniques which a non-specialist restorer (ie myself!) could use to try to remove glass from watercolours, prints, photographs etc, or is it a lost cause?


PS. Obviously I wouldn't attempt anything without the customer's agreement!

[prospero]

That's the customer's problem. Don't make it yours.

This is a job for a skilled restorer. You could have a go and you could succeed, but if you completely ruin
the work it's you that would take the can back.

[Steve N]

prospero wrote
"That's the customer's problem. Don't make it yours.

This is a job for a skilled restorer. You could have a go and you could succeed, but if you completely ruin
the work it's you that would take the can back. "
Ditto

or you could say, it's the Artists problem, ask the customer to take it back to the artist to sort out

[Rainbow]

I shall take your advice and leave well alone then!

[JFeig]

There are also times when a properly trained conservator cannot dislodge an item from the glass.

[prospero]

As they say round here, "If in doubt, do nowt".

[Not your average framer]

I do restoration work, but I never take on artworks stuck to the glass, with the possible exception of photo that can can copied through the glass and digitally restored by the photo lab which does all our photo restoration work for me.

I don't think it is good for my reputation to agree to take on anything which might not result in a satisfactory end result. Some agree to take jobs on the basis that it might not work, but I won't take that chance, negative outcomes don't help your reputation, so why take the the job on at all.

[Rainbow]

negative outcomes don't help your reputation

That's a very good point, Mark, thanks. What the customer would remember is that [at best] you didn't succeed, or [at worst] you made it worse than it was before, no matter how much you warned them of that possibility beforehand.

why take the the job on at all.

Why indeed! I guess because it goes against the grain to try to make a silk purse out of a proverbial sow's ear. I'd rather get back to the raw silk, so to speak, and I was hoping there might be a safe way of doing that, but at least now I know there isn't (unless possibly by a specialist restorer). Thank you all.

[prospero]

A lady once brought me a watercolour which was stuck to the glass. It wasn't a brilliant work it has to be said and it
was quite small. No mount. I ended up giving her a fiver for it and when some says "Why do I need a mount", I wheel it
out and show it to them.