The Framers Forum

I have been asked to mount and frame a photograph that is 180cm x 26 cm with a 5 cm wide mount. Is that possible?

It can be done with slip and/or spliced mount.

I would do slip on top of spliced mount

If your customer will accept 70mm borders then how about making a mount using Rose & Hollis moulding A231 and then painting it to the required colour. It would be a deep mount of about 8mm deep.

Other than doing something like that, I think that you might have problems doing this as I suspect that obtaining mountboard to that size will not only be hard to do, but also where do you find a large enough mountcutter? Maybe someone else can offer a better answer!

I heard of people who can do spliced mounts, but I've not seen a spliced mount, so I don't know how undetectable the spliced joint would be. Personally, I think that I would chicken out of this option as I'm not sure how it would work out.

I get larger mounts cut for me by Wessex Fine Art. Might be worth contacting them to see if they can go up to that sort of size

Card mounts of that size are a bit bonkers IMHO. I would go with Mark's suggestion and use a flat section of moulding.

There is a smaller R&H slip about 35mm wide with a bevelled edge. I think you have to think way from the trad mount and
think of it as a spacer. Visually, I think a narrow margin would look better than a wide one - combined with a generous outer
frame. This would also save quite a lot of glass area and therefore weight.

Build up a board to hinge the photo to, maybe by laminating pieces so the joins on the two layers don't correspond. I'd use
two layers of 3mm foam core. The slip would simply drop over this board.

There are ready-finished gold slips 30mm wide. If gold doesn't work then you would have to paint a bare wood one.
One note of caution: Glass on a painted slip can produce weird optical effects. You have to 'lift' the glass clear. I usually
run a narrow strip of linen tape along the back of the slip - just wide enough so it hides under the rebate lip.

It's hard to predict how a photo this long will settle. Be better if it were drymounted, but you would need a HUGE vac press
or a hardbed press and plenty of room. Or maybe a roller mounter.
This procedure may not be appropriate to the photo anyway. To avoid crimping the edges and give the hinged photo a fighting
chance, one way is to run another strip of linen tape along the back of the slip. The gap would be imperceptible, but it would
let the paper move.

You may also consider a direct overlay of acrylic glazing. Works sometimes.

prospero wrote:Card mounts of that size are a bit bonkers IMHO.

Peter,

Maybe bonkers, but there must be a demand because mount boards 2 metres long are now made even in China.
See pic attached.

Keith Hewitt wrote:
Peter,

Maybe bonkers, but there must be a demand because mount boards 2 metres long are now made even in China.
See pic attached.

Wessex sell Crescent Jumbo Ragmat that is 2440x1220 for £73+ VAT. But it's a bit like taking a hammock to a picnic if you plan to seduce your picnic partner. You can do it, but you'd be better off with a blanket!


Using a plain-wood slip and painting it is dead easy - as is using a pre-finished slip if preferred. Getting a mount that size cut will be expensive. And it needs shipping. And the first one will be damaged by Tuffnels, the second you will put a grubby fingerprint on. It's expensive, it's time-consuming. The plain slip is not fragile, it is quick and easy to do - and you can still charge exactly the same as you would for a big mount. The mountboard will cost you well over £100 so you'll be charging £200 for it; the slip will cost under £15 and will take you, what, half an hour in the worst case scenario?

A297 is 51mm wide; F6 has no bevel but is 47mm.

If you want to use a spliced mount you could always fabric-wrap it. A fine-weave silk would look good.

Good Point James about the logistics and general embuggerance of shipping large sheets of board.

You want one sheet. You may well be able to buy singles, but it's going to get severely knackered in transit. You can bet your boots on that.
So what d'ya do? Order a few sheets - maybe 5, with the idea that the one in the middle stands a better chance of survival. So now you've spent
>£400 + carriage to get one sheet. And then you make a bog-up of cutting the mount and you can't use the other sheets because they have dings.
So you order another batch. This is getting expensive. Chances are you'll bog-up on the second attempt. You don't need this.

The good news is you'll have lots of big boards to use up on smaller jobs. Got somewhere to store it?

Thanks for that advice, using the slip sounds like the best option. Handling the glass though sounds scary to me.

As for the glass, I would get somebody like Wessexs to cut it too size, along with the backing board, then they can be wrapped together for transportation . Leave wrapped together when storing, you will find handling the glass easier, cut the frame to fit the glass and also the the slip.
Then when assembling, lay the glass/backing board on the bench, take the backing away, , clean the glass, turn over, clean the other side. Now assemble the parts, slip, photo etc , tape up the package (one of the few times I would seal the package ) before putting the frame, you will find that glass, slip, photo, backing etc is more stable when taped togther, now slip into the frame, finish the assembly off.

It will look stunning too! I love the way these mounts made from flat wood moulding turn out.

And post a pic when finished please

Wow thank you all so much for your support advice and encouragement. Just as I was thinking should I really be a picture framer?! I can and will do it!
What backing would you use Steve N?

For the backing in the frame, I would use 3mm MDF, as I said have it cut to size at the same time as the glass, then as a barrier board between the photo and the MDF, a couple of pieces of conservation mountcard spliced together to make up the size.