The Framers Forum

Does anyone have a view on the following idea;

I want to hang a large pastel drawing on heavy creased paper. The idea is to have it behind a 3/4 fillet (not mount-board, then Artglass, then a second fillet followed by the frame. This will give the breathing space away from the Artglass and allow space to secure the artwork.

Is this a reasonable idea or does anyone have other thoughts on how this could be done in a better way?

Just to be clear - the frame would obviously surround the outer fillet leaving about 1/4" fillet showing.

What purpose does the upper fillet serve?

Take the lower fillet, rotate 90degrees put the frame over it.

I can't honestly say that I like the idea very much. The fillets are unlikely to allow the pastel to move in a natural way to prevent any cockling from occuring with changes in temperature or humidity. The pastel needs to be allowed to breathe a little and to slightly expand, contract if conditions are such to cause dimensional changes in the paper of the pastel. This would be best mounted in a platform type mount behind a double mount where the cut out of the platform mount is spacced back slightly from it's surrounding mountboard to allow freedom for the pastel to move if it needs to.

I also don't like the idea of the fillets touching the artwork, because wood contains lignin and over time lignin generates acid. Removing the acid at a later date from a pastel is most definately very problematic and therefore not a bright idea to let this happen in the first place. What's the problem with using a mount in the first place? I think that this would be the normally accepted text book for this problem and text book solutions usually make the best sense, unless there is a very good reason to do otherwise.

Thanks for your replies. I agree with your comments and appreciate that there will be no breathing space with the artwork trapped tight up behind the fillet. Reason for not using mountboard was twofold. 1. My Keencut will only take 1220mm board. 2. Want the artwork to go almost to the frame. Whether I could use a 1" slip and create a slight gap with something like a 1/2" strip of mountboard for the pastel to sit between for movement might work. The platform mount as I understand it might need more of a border but I hadn't thought of that.

The upper fillet was more a decorative edge to the frame.

This is a personal piece for the house so I can afford to play around but of course it has to look right. Probably the biggest piece I have framed.

You can make a backing board big enough by laminating foamboard. The joins will not be seen anyway and
if you stagger/cross the joins in the two layers you will get one rigid board.

Hinge the work to the foamboard, leaving maybe a half-inch margin. Then drop the fillets (I would say 'slip') on top.
Here's the sneaky part - if the 'jack up' the outer edges of the slip using a strip of linen tape or similar, it won't crimp the edges
of the art. If the slip is 25mm, the art goes 12mm under and the linen strip about 6mm wide then it has 7mm expansion gap. Obviously
you have to jiggle about with these figures and hard hinge the work at the top and lose hinge at the sides and bottom. I have used
this method on large posters and it does the trick.

Thanks again. Prospero that will work. Come to think of it I used something very similar on this piece of work although was probably easier to lie flat. The theory will be the same though.

That's the ticket.

That works very well as there is lots of blank space around the image, which which makes a window mount
superfluous from an aesthetic point of view.

I would still consider sealing the surface of the fillets with something to block the transfer of acid generated within the fillets to the artwork.

NYAF I will do that. See how we get on over the weekend.

Well I got the artwork on the wall. I was extra careful getting this artglass in there too (1300mm x 900mm). Hinged securely on to a single sheet of foamcore with a 3/8 strip of backing card around its edge to allow a light gap for the artwork to breathe. Frame is also made deeper with a 1" fillet glued and screwed to the back. Artwork sits inside the fillets by 1/2". Quite happy with the result and is certainly is a feature in the room.

Thanks again for your advice.