Matting and Bagging

[David Aimone]

I have the opportunity to place some landscapes in a small gallery near where the landscapes were taken. But I need to print and mat photos then place them in plastic sleeves for sale.

I have a mat cutter and usually just use a single strip of archival mounting tape to attach the print to the mat at the top. But with these, I'd like to see a backing on the mat/photo. I'd prefer not to mount the photos to a board.

How do you suggest/what is the best way to assemble this type of package? I'm new to this...

[Jon Shiu]

Usual way is to hinge mount the mount board to the window mat. Then position the print and use clear corner mounts to hold the print to the mount board.

Jon

[dsphotog]

Jon's solution also allows the buyer to matt/frame to their liking.
If the gallery does framing, they have the option of selllng them a frame job.

[SolsticePhoto]

Only thing to add is buying form fitted clear bags from (your guessed it) clearbags.com. This is what most galleries use and it gives you a real professional looking product. I find that if you pick the right size bag the backer and mat will be aligned by the back and you do not need to affix them. Although I do agree with the hinge mount suggestion. If you have a few of these to do you can get kits from www.documounts.com. IIRC they will even custom cut them to your size....

[jp]

You can use your strip of mounting tape to mount the top of the image to a piece of foamcore. Then hingemount the foamcore the the mat. If foamcore is too thick, use some rejected matboard for backing that has visual imperfections making it unsuitable for a window mat.

I do my own framing with aluminum minidome frames and find that foamcore and double matting and glass fills the space nicely, making it unnecessary to the leaf-spring looking spring clips into the back edges of the frame.

I haven't bagged photos before, but the bags look really inexpensive and worthwhile having!

[Jim Noel]

Only thing to add is buying form fitted clear bags from (your guessed it) clearbags.com. This is what most galleries use and it gives you a real professional looking product. I find that if you pick the right size bag the backer and mat will be aligned by the back and you do not need to affix them. Although I do agree with the hinge mount suggestion. If you have a few of these to do you can get kits from www.documounts.com. IIRC they will even custom cut them to your size....
Thanks for these two links. I have been having problems with old supplier and will look into these firms.

Jim