The Framers Forum

Hi all, after a bit more advice again. One of these fine days I'll have learnt enough to actually give some advice.

Anyway, I mounted a print today then noticed that it's rippled top to bottom almost all of the way along. Checked my hinging to make sure that it was all flat and it was. Any ideas on how I can remedy the situation without the use of any presses etc as I don't have one.

Thanks

If its any consolation, I hedgehog mounted a large print for the first time yesterday and spent today undoing it all, for exactly the same reason.
Having successfully Y hinge mounted prints for ages, I'm frustrated too. It's into the Hotpress first thing tomorrow with the customers approval. Deadlines...

Did you use T hinges? That the normal way to reduce/avoid cockling. It can also occur when moving an item from lower to higher humidity areas.

I don't t-hinge as a rule but rather hinge it all along the top with a single piece of hinging tape. I don't fasten the artwork anywhere else unless I really have to.

As for the humidity, that's one thing that I don't have to worry about in the workshop, thankfully. It's a modern, dry building unlike the one that I used to operate my gallery out of years ago - it was the basement of an old fishermans cottage where I had to run a de-humidiier 24/7. Not ideal.

I regularly have work brought in hinged with one piece right across the top.
There is almost always cockling. Although it makes me happier when I find gummed acid free tape, rather than masking!!
I would seriously consider T hinging for mounted pieces, it allows the natural expansion and contraction of the paper.

If the cockling doesn't occur while in you rworkshop, it may well happen after being in the customers house for a while due to atmospheric changes.

Hinging all the way along the top is not ideal, because as the print absorbs humidity during humid seasons of the year the hinging along the top can not take move to allow for the natural expansion and contraction of the print due the prints moisture content. Properly executed T hinges have one T hinge anchored close to the edge of the print and the other T hinge anchored with the top part of the T with a length of free to move hinging material between the print and the top of the T to allow movement so that the print is not restricted in it's natural movement.

It should be recognised that the size of the mount borders need to allow enough space for the free movement of the T hinge not to be impeded by the clamping action of fixing the backing board in place with the framers points, or other fixings. Also any remaining cockling of the print should now, if any only be slight and restricted to extremely close to the T hinges and for this reason should be completely hidden behind the mount border.

For this reason it is beneficial not to hinge the print too closely to the edge of the aperture of the mount. As you may have noticed, the Fine Art Trade Guild framing standard specify that the part of the hinge attached to the artwork is to be about 5mm and for even stipulation there will be a well reasoned explaination.

Well, I'm going to offer three such explainations; the first is that any cockling around the hinge should not force the front surface of the print backwards away the the mount edge, leaving a visible gap, the second is that the hinge should not extend beyond the mount into the visible area of the print allowing an increased thickness where the print crosses the edge of the mount (creating the risk of the high point creating a visible gap either side of the hinge, plus the possibility of cockling around the hinge) and thirdly if the hinge needs to be safely removed a later date by a framer who is re-framing the print the hinge can be be safely soaked off without wetting any of the visible area of the print.

Wetting the visible area of the print may not sould like a big deal, but there are implications that some may not think off. When the print gets older and the paper has had time to discolour with age, care has to be taken not to leave a watermark on the visible area of the paper. Also there is an additional risk of creating dimensional changes in the paper as the artwork dies out and it is desireable that any such changes will be sucessfully be hidden behind the mount. As I am sure, if you think about it there are good reasons to avoid getting such problems corrected by a skilled conservator, when any of these problems could have been avoided by following good practice during originally framing the print.

Following best practice at all times is how we can ALL gain the very best reputations with our customers and it is something that every single one of us can acheive with minimal effort.

I t-hinge my images and never normally have any issues, but had two last week that had rippled, both done at the same time. It looked like it was the backing board was not keeping everything flat as there was a bubble in the backing, but upon opening them the backing was fine, the pictures were fine but it was actually the back of the mounts which had all rippled like they were damp.

I always sandwich pictures with p-90 and now wonder if this can restrict the backing of the mount reacting to temperature and humidity. It could have just been the mountboard was a bit damp, as they were done just after new year so the heating and de-humidifer would have been off for a few weeks.

It takes a lot of humidity to cockle mountboard, that amount of humidity in the mount board is likely to get noticed when you try to cut the mount. I think that it is more likely that this problem is one that is likely to occurred after leaving your premises.

Have you ever tried cutting damp mountboard? I have! Customers sometimes bring in their own mountboard and ask me to cut it for them. It's not always worth doing it. Sometimes it's bent, sometimes it's creased and sometimes it's a little damp.

Are there any sign of the damp affecting anything else? A distorted backing board sounds like a bit of a give away to me, I don't think that you would not have not noticed a distorted backing board while you where framing it. I would say that this dampness is something to do with this customers location, has the picture been hung on a newly plastered wall, or has the been a pipe burst.

A slightly sneaky way is the cut a piece of mountboard a tad bigger than the window. Snip off the corners (about an inch) and then
tape it to the back of the undermount, in register with the window. This negates any bowing in the backboard and provides a bit
of 'push' against the window edge without undue crimping. A fairly rigid back (2.5 MDF) also helps. This may not cure the problem
entirely but it will improve things.

Looks like I'll be changing my methodology in future. Thanks for the advice - looks like I was taught the wrong way 30 years ago. Hey ho.

As for the current print rippling problem, I initially thought that it was a humidity problem from the customer which has only come to light once it was mounted. It's for a friend of mines daughter who bought in in New York, lives in London, but is getting it framed up North in her home town, so I can't see any problems ahead.