Seeking advice for long Washi mount with exposed edges

joepen76

Grumbler in Training
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Hello everyone!

I'm a framing amateur and have recently decided to try the process myself for a watercolor painting on Washi (nothing valuable, just sentimental value).
I wanted to do my best job in terms of archival safety/reversability while avoid ruining the painting.

The painting is quite long horizontally, about 50cm and tall just 18cm. It has peculiarity of having paint right on three out of four edges so I wanted to mount with exposed edges. If this wouldn't have been the case I would have used corners/support but I'm out of luck.

I was thinking to do a t-hinge mount and using 3-4 hinges on the upper side. Since the paper is very thin and "flappy", I was thinking to use some tapes on the lower, left and right side. This would be only glued to the painting and not the the boards. This would allow the passpartout to "clamp the sides" and make the painting more tidy. passpartout is to be cut exactly to the size of the artwork so to hide hinges and the others pieces of tape. I was not going to use self-adhesive linen tape to avoid issues when removing.

I was thinking to go ahead with my plan and to use the hayaku hinging tape (water reversible) after watching these vidoes by Mal Reynolds:
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However I found myself not easily finding the product anymore on Lineco website or online. So I had some questions.

1) in general does my plan sound good or is it complete nonsense?
2) what happened to the hayaku tape? I can only find a "new gummed version" .. is it the same?
3) i see a gummed paper hinging tape (water activated).. could this be a substitute candidate? This -> https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71NF15aHmHL._SX522_.jpg

Thanks a lot in advance for taking the time to read this and any advice!
 
Mounting with edges exposed is called float mounting. Any tape you can buy pre-gummed, be it self adhesive or water activated is not the best but water activated is better than self adhesive.

You can make your own hinges out of Japanese tissue (Washi !) and cook your own paste, wheat starch paste but it's not as convenient as pre gummed stuff and takes a bit of skill.

The method I like is to cut an aperture out of the mounting board, fix the artwork to the fall out and then fit the fall out back in with the artwork attached.

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Here's another method but also some good reading on making your own hinges and more .....




Using these methods you would not need an aperture mat and would use a concealed spacer in the rebate instead, but you could still use one with the first method, I'd make it a double mat or 8 ply at least.
..
 
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Thank you RoboFramer! Please allow me some followup.

What does pre-gummed means? With glue/starch already applied?
When you say "worse than your own paste" do you mean in terms of strength of adhesive or danger of not being really archival safety?
If I don't go for my own hinges, would the Lineco "Gummed Linen Hinging Tape" or "Gummed Paper Hinging Tape" be any good? (Both water activated/reversible)

I do have some starch glue actually at hand that I use for my art (Fueki corn starch glue, yellow tube, used when mixing with pigments) but I'm not really sure what's inside so I'm a little hesitant to use it. What do you think?
I have some "sized" washi paper at hand .. (treated with alum and not sure what else) .. not sure this can be used for the hinges, right?
I have some washi tracing paper, very thin.. could this be used or too thin?

Back to my case, my painting is on thin washi, I don't think float mounting with four big pedestals is ideal, however the anchor/bridge method seems promising and I'm considering using it! Do you think it can still work better than hinges if the painting is very thin and lightweight? Are there any cons to using hinges on the top side like I suggested?

I was planning on using concealed spacers in any case, and the aperture mat I could drop if using the method you suggested but will need it with mine. I don't mind it either way from an aesthetic point of view!

Thanks again for any pointers. There are so many methods to consider and I'm still pretty much undecided so I appreciate the guidance!
 
That’s a heck of a lot to be getting on with - like a correspondence course.

The search facility here has all your answers, put keywords like hayaku, float mount, wheat starch, kozo and anything else relevant. Then put some of the same in and where it says ‘by’ you can search by post author, look for “preservator” and “Jim Miller” for starters.

That should keep you busy for a day or two :)

I’d just add that anything that comes on rolls with adhesive pre applied, regardless of manufacturer claims, is not best for the best. Gummed linen tape (good keywords) is not suitable for direct contact with art. It’s great for hinging mat to mounting board.

Starch paste can be made to any consistency, Japanese tissue comes in many weights and colours and you can feather (another key word) the edges as well as the ends, make them as wide or narrow as you like etc etc, you have control - you do not with tapes - it’s all there

Also floating is not the most archival method anyway - you have to have more adhesive contact points. If matted you can use methods with no adhesive in direct contact and even no adhesive - period! (Full stop). Search for “platform mount”
 
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Ahah, you are right :)

Thanks for the pointers, I am (and was) exploring the forum as advised. For starters I think you sold me on avoiding tapes ;-)

Ah! Platform and sink mounting, they are really nice! I gather though they are for "matting" setups (i.e. using an aperture matting, i.e. not exposed edges). I don't suppose I can do a sink mount without matting and just hope for the painting to stay in place.. It would need to be tightly fitted and that would be bad for not taking into consideration expansion.

Thus after a couple of days thinking I'm more oriented on floating mount with either the "aperture out of the mounting board" method or a huge platform covering almost all of the painting. I'm now less inclined with my original method explained in the initial post as would require the aperture mat to be just right and hanging hinges which as I read have lots of issues.

I don't suppose there is anything else to consider unless I'm willing to sacrifice the edges which I'm not as the painting is right on them.

Anyhow, still brainstorming here but just wanted to share update! Cheers and have a nice Sunday everyone.
 
Sink mount and platform mount are two different things - platform mount allows expansion but yes, both are for things that are matted.

Are the edges that important? Are the Mona Lisa's edges covered by a normal frame? It's just that if preservation is as, or more important than presentation, float mounting is not the way to go but if it must be it must be and your choices are now informed ones. It's like I said to my customers many times, ........................ this is what I recommend - you no likey? You still wanna go with plan A? No problem.
 
I hear you!

Maybe I'll consider "photo corners" once more (or framing corners or mounting corners).
That way I get edges and I don't use adhesive.

Could this be an equally good approach? I only tried some bad quality corners before starting to learn more about all this and now they sound more appealing!

Thanks again!
 
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Hi, joepen. Welcome to the Grumble! :)

For this sort of thing, I float hinge with mulberry paper and rice starch. You can also use wheat starch, as suggested earlier. I just learned it with rice, which is equally good. Here in the US, I buy the paper from Hiromi, (in 27, 56 and 57 gram weights, and they have more), and the starch from Larson Juhl. It works so much better than other methods, and will stand the test of time better than plastic corners. If a piece is so valuable that you need no fixed contact point, hinges should be skipped for other methods, but most of the time, it's fine.

If you haven't already discovered it, Frametek.com is a great hinging help. When you go to the website, click 'articles' at the top, and they come up. The one thing I'll add is that, if using rice starch instead of wheat, the water/starch ratio is slightly less. I use a 1/5 ratio of rice starch to water, and it can work with as low as 1/4. I encourage you to try this kind of float hinging. I was in your spot a dozen years ago, and learning to float hinge with starch saved me. And it's okay to start very simple. A simple, microwavable glass dish, and a couple of spoons, and you can start learning. And, as always, practice on other things first. I've heard magazine pages recommended, because if you can do those without ripples, everything else is easy). Good luck! Here are links to the Frametek site, and a recent Grumble thread on floating.


 
I hear you!

Maybe I'll consider "photo corners" once more (or framing corners or mounting corners).
That way I get edges and I don't use adhesive.

Could this be an equally good approach? I only tried some bad quality corners before starting to learn more about all this and now they sound more appealing!

Thanks again!
Nope! The adhesive can fail and the artwork slip on to the residue, plus they should not be left exposed, they should be under a mat to prevent them from bowing out .... and the arttwork is supporting it's own weight on only the bottom of the lower corners. They're great for photo albums as intended .... maybe some framing applications too but there will always be a better alternative.
 
Hello all!

Almost a year passed (took some time to decide & organize, arg!). I took all your advices in consideration and eventually went with a platform mount (@Jim Miller's style).
I decided to sacrifice few millimeters (2-5 depending on which side) of the subject and went with this mount. This will anyway leave the art untouched as to always be changed in the future without headaches. Bought a custom made frame with ample space between the glass (archival) and the mats; with a total of 3 mats (passepartout, platform-window mat and backing mat).

Despite the few mms being "clamped" and despite the very light paper the "sandwich" holds perfectly! Very satisfied.

Thanks a lot for all your help & advices!
 
Thanks for following up on your project.
That was quite a learning curve for a single item.
Just an FYI; Lineco has started remanufacturing the Hayaku gummed Washi tape. Not the first choice in hinging material, but handy when full conservation framing isn’t needed.
I’m interested in finding out just what the water activated adhesive is.
 
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