Local conditions obviously vary. In Chicago with AC and heat, my 16X20 FB prints stay pretty darn flat after hot pressing them without mounting and storing them in flat stacks. Maybe the stack weight is a consideration.
Local conditions obviously vary. In Chicago with AC and heat, my 16X20 FB prints stay pretty darn flat after hot pressing them without mounting and storing them in flat stacks. Maybe the stack weight is a consideration.
Tin Can
My silver prints are almost all on 11x14 or smaller paper. The paper I used buckles and curls a lot, but those sizes are still small enough that I'm happy with temporary corner mounts. My black and white ink prints are in similar sizes and on matte-finish paper that hangs perfectly flat. These do really well with corner mounts.
Most of my color ink ink prints are much bigger than this, so I mount them. Exactly how depends on the body of work. My favorite material so far is aluminum dibond, which is perfectly flat and unaffected by temperature or humidity. The surface is pure aluminum. The core is polyethylene. The dry-mount adhesive is silicone-based. These materials have been considered safe for archival storage for a very long time. The adhesive cannot be removed, however.
But I don't think that there's any way you'd remove a truly big print that's wet-mounted with rice starch, without doing damage. The reversible mounting idea strikes me as awfully hypothetical.
I can't get by with that here and I would think that Chicago would be worse-maybe not. More than once I have had to take a hinged print back from my rep, a buyer or a collector because the print warped when I didn't dry mount it. I wouldn't consider now selling a print un-matted (helps to insure they get presented the way I want them) or un-dry mounted at 16x20.Originally Posted by Randy Moe
And for the person who asked above.....my method is identical whether silver or ink. Except in the old days I used the high temp stuff for silver prints. Now I use low temp for both silver and ink.
Thanks,
Kirk
at age 73:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep"
I can't get by with that here and I would think that Chicago would be worse-maybe not. More than once I have had to take a hinged print back from my rep, a buyer or a collector because the print warped when I didn't dry mount it. I wouldn't consider now selling a print un-matted (helps to insure they get presented the way I want them) or un-dry mounted at 16x20.
And for the person who asked above.....my method is identical whether silver or ink. Except in the old days I used the high temp stuff for silver prints. Now I use low temp for both silver and ink. But I have used high temp for ink and they were fine too-just don't cook them longer than you have to.
Thanks,
Kirk
at age 73:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep"
I bought a dry mount press locally for cheap and have been dry mounting ever since. I don't have inkjet prints to mount, so this may not pertain to the original question, but rather it may be of use to others. Once I worked out the issues with my method and materials on waste prints, my dry mounted prints all lay beautifully flat. I don't have an abundance of years to say whether or not it will last, but I use buffered "archival" materials like those recommended by people that have done this for many years. I see no reason my process should fail the test of time when I am using essentially the same method as Ansel and others.
Kirk, you are a Pro in a different league. I don't sell and I only need to satisfy myself. Your conditions must be a lot dryer than here. All it does is rain in Chicago anymore, 5" a day is becoming common. Winter is dry indoors, but I humidify.
I am going to start mounting large inkjet, RC and FB for the experience and so I can hang from a single point, right now I thumbtack 4 corners. I dislike glass or plastic on top of my prints.
Tin Can
For agreeable display circumstances an unmounted print probably won't pass muster. Which type of mounting all depends. But even in a portfolio box, a mounted
print just looks way better. It's another step and expense. My own custom is to drymount my best black and white prints, and just leave the duplicates of secondary ones in boxes. This allows me to precisely trim the composition more precisely than initially, in the masking easel. It gives a safe handling border, and also means the print is one step closer to framing, in the exact proportions and borders I intend. Color prints are a more complicated subject, and I'd hate to start throwing around generic answers, even when the topic is limited just to inkjets. Some inkjets attempt to simulate matte watercolor papers and are perhaps best mounted analogously, with a bit of deckle edge. Others are shiny and would look inappropriate warped. Some are even done on fabric and might be best presented stretched over a frame. ... but RC papers are probably not the best candidate for drymounting per se. You have to use such a low mounting temp that you either
risk bonding failure on a hot day, or will blemish the paper surface at a higher temp. I actually use "Colormount" for fiber-based black and white prints, never for
anything RC.
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