What kind of board do you use?Originally Posted by Doremus Scudder
What kind of board do you use?
It's a basic fact of life. Different expansion/contraction coefficients board versus mounted paper due to humidity changes have always warped things, and always will. Every competent picture frame knows that. With big pieces you either need to cold mount to something inert, or else countermount something equal on the back, or allow a rigid picture frame do the work. The museum board most of us use for drymounting is rather hydroscopic, and the softer the brand of board, the more easily it absorbs humidity. Keeping drymounted prints tight in stacks or portfolio boxes helps, as does storage in reasonably dry conditions. For big display prints what I did was to laminate a veneer of 2-ply museum board to a rigid backing prior to drymounting the print itself. Among brand choices, the current Archival Methods ragboard I'm now using is quite firm. Rising was similar, Light Impressions and Strathmore a bit softer, and Crescent objectionably soft and hydroscopic.
Drew Wiley mentioned the Rising brand, and that's the one I use. Also, when I first got into LF and B&W printmaking nearly 10 years ago, an experienced LF friend was nice enough to allow me to observe him doing the several steps in dry mounting prints so they will be well adhered to a good 4-ply board that will remain flat (subject to vicissitudes of changing humidity) -- and that helped a lot. And one IMPORTANT bit of advice he gave me was to decide from the outset which color or shade of mounting board I wanted to standardize on for my B&W prints going forward. I chose Rising Warm White, and that's what I buy in 32x40in sheets for my "proof" prints (personal keeper favorites) and general use. However, I also occasionally buy some Brite White 9x12in 4-ply boards in 25 sheet bricks from Archival Methods due to their frequent "sale" price breaks for that size and number. I use those 9x12in boards for mounting extra copies of 8x10 prints that I consider gifting candidates (with the thought that the recipient will decide what shade of board to use for the window-mat and any framing materials).
... JMOwens (Mt. Pleasant, Wisc. USA)
"If people only knew how hard I work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all." ...Michelangelo
Last year used a lot of vintage FB Portriga Rapid for a project. The Paper really had a curl to it. My solution was to place the paper between 2 sheets of 2 ply archival board and place it a hot Seal press for under a minute. Took it out and placed on my cellars cool concrete floor with sheet of counter top atop it and a weight or two. Paper cooled down in about a minute. Then stays flat in the easel, and remains pretty flat when placed into the developer. This 2 minute procedure just worked.
Is there a reason the color matters? I watched a video from Fstoppers where he mounted a print that was the same size as the board. I booked marked Archival methods, the 9x12 is on sale now lol. Also, anyone have experience with Neschen Gudy 831?. I was thinking of doing the cold mounting instead of heat activated.
I've been using Bainbridge Alpharag Artcare board in a couple of colors of white for some years now. It's buffered and has impurity-absorbing particles (activated charcoal?) embedded in it, so not for use with color materials.
Drew is right about mounted work curving a bit. I intend everything to eventually be framed and have an overmat, which holds everything straight. The slight curve doesn't matter for gallery presentations, etc.
Best,
Doremus
Just me, but I have stopped dry mounting, in favor of flattening print in hot press, then using archival mounting tape on the top edge of print to board, then overmatting...
The conservators like this, and the natural roll curve is pressed into the mount board... Had no problems with humidity so far, and image looks like a framed natural photo print instead of a printed on matt page... And has relieved my fear of ruining a print and matt in the mounting process...
I don't mind, but others???
Steve K
You must be working with very small prints, LabRat. But they'll buckle sooner or later. Paper hinging is a method applied to watercolor paintings with perimeter mats, and likewise suits l"float-mounted" Pt/Pt prints coated on textured watercolor papers. The glossier a print is, the worse any unevenness looks. What conservators like or don't like is a complex subject. Drymounting actually protects a print by sealing the backside of the print. In any event, it doesn't diminish the value of a print whatsoever if correctly done; whereas something being visually funky almost defeats the whole game from the start if the print is intended for display, or displayed for sake of sale. And there is a correct way even to do hinging or selective perimeter attachment to minimize buckling; but I won't go into that at the moment.
I get slight ripples along at least one edge of many of my 11x14 prints flattened in a dry mount press. Not sure if the temperature is too high or somehow the pressure is uneven. It's a press that has seen a bit of use, I bought it second-hand from someone who acquired it for a local university photo department.
Now as per cold mount foils and the question of jtomasella. Cold mounting is far more difficult than heat drymounting. And without specialized equipment and a lot of practice, is a darn easy way to ruin something. I'd reserve it for RC color print media and glossy polyester media like Cibachrome and Fuji Supergloss. You also need a truly flat, non-warping substrate, so cost per print will be significantly higher than drymounting.
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