Black Hinges?

[Shayla]

When floating thin paper art over a black backing, do you ever use black mulberry hinges?
If so, from whence do you source it? I usually wrap light-colored kozo hinges around a light
colored backing, but we're floating this papyrus over black, and it's so thin in many areas,
that we need to do all we can to hide the hinges. Any thoughts?

 

[S. Martin]

I've used these papers in certain applications: https://hiromipaper.com/collections/100-japanese-kozo-mulberry/products/ck-color-kozo-series CK Color Kozo Series (17 g/m²)

In my case, the artwork was large, on an unusual, heavy, handmade paper. To be floated, of course! We glued the black kozo to the outside of a heavier hinging paper so that the hinges wouldn't draw the eye if/when the paper curled with changes in the environment.

 

[Rick Granick]

With papyrus, I just try to locate the hinges behind thicker areas of the texture. Usually in the context of the piece's overall texture they end up being fairly well camouflaged, even if not actually invisible.
Rick

 

[wpfay]

What Rick said, and possibly behind painted areas.
I'm not real keen on how a dark background affects the image of variable translucent media, so I have been known, but rarely, to hinge the papyrus to a thin rag or rag barrier paper that has been torn to be just slightly smaller than the art, and did a modified hedgehog mount to that, then adhered that to the darker background.

 

[Shayla]

With papyrus, I just try to locate the hinges behind thicker areas of the texture. Usually in the context of the piece's overall texture they end up being fairly well camouflaged, even if not actually invisible.
Rick

I do this, as well. This pieces just has a lot of translucent parts, in the area where I'll be hinging, and those edges
are so wide that I'm concerned putting the hinges way back under the painted parts might result in wavy, lifting edges.
The piece is 30 x 67, and is already really rippled. I usually handle that by flattening it under weights for awhile,
(although this doesn't always help), then float hinging the heck out of it. What do you do, to get them flat?

 

[Rick Granick]

I'm not real keen on how a dark background affects the image of variable translucent media, so I have been known, but rarely, to hinge the papyrus to a thin rag or rag barrier paper that has been torn to be just slightly smaller than the art, and did a modified hedgehog mount to that, then adhered that to the darker background.

That is a good idea. On the other hand, using a dark background in order to maximize the visibility of the layers helps show the structure of the papyrus itself, which some find interesting. While that does increase the visibility of the hinges too, I find that they usually become part of the overall texture so not objectionable.

What do you do, to get them flat?

Same as you, but if they have been tightly rolled it doesn't help all that much.
Rick

 

[Bruce Papier]

If the papyrus is really sheer, I have a feeling the black hinges will show through and not blend with the background because they will be floating slightly above it. Do you think numerous very thin (i.e. lightweight) kozo hinges might work? They turn rather transparent if they are thin enough.

 

[JFeig]

I would suggest what art conservators sometimes do.
You can use watercolor pigments in pinch to camouflage the hinges.