Mounting tissue - what and where to buy in Europe

[andreios]

I am looking for advice about mounting my darkroom prints. I don't own or have access to any hot press, most of the times I am trying to flatten my prints under load of books, but once they are matted in a simple passepartout (attached to it only by corners) they tend to develop curly-ish edges and such.
Therefore I was looking to a way to attach the print to the mat-board completely - on the whole surface of the print. I read about dry mounting using mounting tissue and hot press (and simplified substitutes such as iron, but in the end I was unable to find any dry mounting tissue anywhere round these parts...

What do other people round here use for mounting prints flat? I've seen some self-adhesive tissues - are they OK?

I'd be very thankful for all tips and suggestions.

[IanG]

I used to get mine from Lion Picture framing in Biormingham (http://www.lionpic.co.uk), UK. The newer tissues are designed for RC papers as well as fibre based and don't need such a hot temperature, you can get away with using an iron. They will export.

Ian

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

I'd say go with whoever can sell you Bienfang Colormount, as this tissue seems easiest to work when using a mechanical press, and typical rag mount board. Ian's suggestion of Lion is a good one, see the tissues here: http://www.lionpic.co.uk/equipment-tools/mounting-laminating/hot-dry-mounting-tissues-films/bienfang.aspx

If you go with the easily obtainable alternative in UK/Ireland, that is Unimount, bear in mind that this Hotpress-made tissue is designed to work with vacuum presses, and you may be fighting it hard to succeed with a mechanical one or an iron. This has been confirmed to me by the manufacturer. It has to do with inherent moisture content of what we use as mount board.

Have a look, also, at my thread, http://www.apug.org/forums/forum46/84022-edge-long-dimple-when-dry-mounting-3.html, describing my nearly 2 years of fighting mounting problems... Since I switched to Colormount, and since I started using Anne Larsen's approach I have never had issues. Feel free to ask questions, as mounting can be a bit of a black art...

[andreios]

Ian, Rafal, thank you for your advice - I managed to find a framing company that was willing to sell me samples of both self-adhesive mounting tissue as well as low-temp melting dry mount tissue - I do not know what brant/make it is but I have something to experiment with now. Will report progress.