Framing Large Posters

[Twin Peaks]

Coincidentally I have two customers who are due to come and see me about framing large posters. Now, because they are old they do not want them stuck on a sticky board. The one has described it as being about 4 feet 6 inches by 3 feet. Any tips on how these should be framed would be gratefully received.

[kev@frames]

syrene acrylic glazing, have it cut to size by your supplier, foamcore backing, might as well have that also cut to size, because you dont want it too heavy.
thos two tips ought to get you half way there and save you a lot of time.
in a moment someone will be along, mentioning things about spacing it off the glazing, but due to the size a mount in one piece is out of the question.

[prospero]

Is it the customers or the posters that are old?

Find out first if the posters have any value (or likely to have in future). Some posters can be worth a fortune and this would obviously effect the approach to the framing.

[Roboframer]

If it's too good to stick down, it's too good to be put against the glass or acrylic.

You can get board large enough and you can also splice foambaord and fabric wrap it.

There is also close framing and spacing but it is recommended that the spacers are not touching the artwork - so ideally it would have to be floated with about 5mm space all round.

[The Jolly Good Framer #1]

I would say it was more important to use UV reflecting glass then keeping it away from the glass. But if you wanna keep it away from the glass you could just use a good old mount. (yes I know it’s big, but it is possible).

[Twin Peaks]

Before any more responses, come in, yes one of them is supposed to worth quite a bit. It is a french fashion poster (been put on linen??)

[Bill Henry]

You shouldn’t have to splice the foam board.

In my experience just about every manufacturer of the stuff makes a 40” x 60” x 3/16” sheet. You should be able to get it in “archival” (read cotton rag) sheets.

Ideally, one should use a spacer, but for a piece of glass that size, all of the pressure points will be concentrated on the perimeter of the glass leaving the center unsupported and more prone to break. And, without support over the whole area, the poster will undoubtedly buckle or ripple.

Using spacers with acrylic glazing for something that large may allow the acrylic to bow enough so it may slip out of the spacers and/or, maybe, contact the surface of the poster.

In your situation, since your customer doesn’t want any adhesive in contact with the art, I would simply sandwich the piece between rag foam board and glass or acrylic (which is chemically inert anyway) without a spacer.

You may get micro condensation on the interior of the glass (especially) but given your circumstances, it may be the least problematic solution to a less than ideal situation.

[prospero]

Just a few thoughts....

Posters by their very nature are temporary things. That probably means that they were printed on crap paper and the inks are likely to be very fugitive. Prior to the customers bringing them for framing it's very likely they had never seen the light of day for any long periods. Framing them to anything less than full-blown museum standards could cause them to deteriorate rapidly. From a presevation point of view the best thing would be to sandwich them between rag board and store them somwhere safe.

If the customer really wants to actually look at them it might be a more sensible option to giclee them and frame the repros. (copyrights permitting).

Lame answer I know, but worth thinking about.

[The Jolly Good Framer #1]

Prospero, not a lame idea, a very good idea.

That would be the 100% preservation solution. Have a copy made slightly smaller, about 800x600 would be good just to make it a bit more manageable and put the original away in archival storage. Keep a digital copy to do re-prints.

[prospero]

Well.... it is common practice among owners of extremely valuable paintings to commission a copy to hang on their walls and put the real one in a bank vault. Mainly to save on crippling insurance costs.

Having a single print done of a poster should work out less than the cost of a 40x60 sheet of museum glass.

[The Jolly Good Framer #1]

Well, that’s that problem sorted. Lets give each other a Jolly Good pat on the back and go and make a cup of tea.

We should get paid for this....