I agree with Harold. You could have it vaccuum mounted to archival foam core and float it a half inch under the glass, and with a couple inches of air between it and the edges of the frame. ImageCraft here in Phoenix can mount that big. 'Course that means a six hour road trip!
Another option would be to cut two U shaped halves of the mat, and tile them together. I think with a print that big the viewing distance would make the seam disappear.
I forgot to mention, Logan makes a straight edge w/ bevel cutter that is not hinged to a mat cutting board. If you found 8' board, you can use one of those to make the cuts, doing several feet at a time, then sliding the straight edge down without removing the blade: Logan model #424 Team System
www.craigwphoto.com
I've cut mats this big using the techique Craig mentions...........cut two U pieces out of a 5 foot sheet, there is little wastage. Cut the join on a 45 angle so they lap together. Done properly you can achieve an almost invisible join. Glass go for 3mm, no problems in that size. Backing use Gatorboard or similar so it adds some rigidity to the framed work Choose a substantially sized frame to hold the package together.
Clayton
Another solution to hide the seam in the mat is to reverse the bevel on the window, so that it slants down toward the artwork - meaning the wider portion of the window is closer to the artwork, instead of closer to the glass. Then apply a fabric covering to the mat. Under the circumstances of the size of the piece, I would also recommend getting 8ply mat board instead of 4ply. I can't imagine what 8ply would cost at that size, other than an obscene amount.
Plexiglass at that size is an absolute must. Any frame that long will absolutely flex and torque as you move it. Glass has great compression strength, but terrible flexion. It will shatter, perhaps explosively so, if you try to use a piece with those dimensions.
This is not really an answer, but a warning, depending on the materiel you use for the print. I have begun to do 6 foot long, 16 inch wide Cibachrome (now called Ilfochrome, of course) panoramas.
These pose a particular problem because the Cibachrome support is very rigid and stable and doesn't change size with humidity changes. On the other hand, any sort of paper mat or paper/wooden backing, (even archival paper, of course) changes size significantly with humidity variations.
The problem is that if the print is taped to the backing (the simplest solution), over that long distance it will either buckle in waves when the backing shrinks or pull strongly when the backing expands. On small prints the size change is small enough that it isn't a problem, but over a 6 foot distance I had bad results. If dry mounted it pulls strongly, trying to curve the support, which might give problems in the long run.
I am now trying mounting on a plexiglas support, as that doesn't change much with humidity. I have used cold lamination, which works pretty well, but I am not sure about its archival qualities. Does anyone have info on this? Maybe I could just tape to the plexi. I just thought of this and haven't tried it.
If your prints are on fiber based paper or computer printouts you probably won't have this problem...... But be careful of Cibachrome or other rigid supports.
First of all, let me say how utterly blown away I am by the quality, depth and number of responses. Wow.
A few responses to the things folks posted. I knew about plexi versus glass for huge images. I was only considering glass for smaller pans. I think I might be able to cut my own plexi, too.
The great thing about these responses is that it gives me literally a dozen or so places to focus my research next. And so many pitfalls will now be avoided.
You're right that I'm printing digitally ... using an Epson 7800 ... printing to canvas is interesting ... but I worry about the canvas texture. Will it still look like photo paper?
I had considered canvas wrapping ... very interesting. I'll need to look for real-life examples to get a feel for the aesthetics of it, and how best to achieve it.
And I'll be looking at the various cutting techniques and tools discussed.
It's interesting, as far as I can tell there's nothing about this problem on the web (until now). Perhaps once I get a smooth solution, I'll create a mini-website that details techniques and alternatives.
Thanks so much for the input. What a community. This was my first visit here.
The vacuum mounting to archival foam core is a great idea. I'll be looking nto this.
Errata:
oops ... wrote "I had considered canvas wrapping " when I meant "I had considered linen wrapping"
N.
You mentioned cutting your own plexi....
Thin plexi, a few milimeters thick, can be cut easily by scribing it on both sides with a mat knife or any kind of cutter, scribing it a bit deeply by going past a number of times. Then it breaks easily, starting from one edge and going towards the other. I do this for my panoramas, 6 feet long. It would of course work fine for any size.
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