Framing without the front Plexi/Glass cover

[enduser]

As he swings the image around, at 7 mins 34 seconds you can see all the ripples in the paper as they catch the light.  He's done a good school project but not a profesional job at all.

[indusphoto]

His idea of using a mirror is a actually a good one. You can buy mirrors with quite good frames for much cheaper then artistic frames (economy of scale?)

Mounting on glass is also a good idea, though I think with a little more work he could face mount on glass with a glue. Scoth tape is not going to cut it.

Now, what I would like to do is to somehow scrub the the coating on the bake of mirror and convert it into transparent glass to use as glazing:) That would be a reap coup!

[texshooter]

As he swings the image around, at 7 mins 34 seconds you can see all the ripples in the paper as they catch the light.  He's done a good school project but not a profesional job at all.

I noticed that too. He said he tried glueing it down but got ripples. So he taped the edges down instead -- and still got ripples.  Looks like a 5th grade Mother's Day project if you ask me. But you can't beat $140.

[Damir]

I woner why he did all that cleaning of the mirror background while foreground is perfectly clear?

[bill t.]

That $140 treatment will not fly very well if you're trying to make art to sell, because if you show up at a gallery or art fair with that something like that they'll be laughing about you for the next 3 years.

The Achilles heal of mounted metallic prints is that they spotlight the tiniest ripple, speck of dust, bump in the substrate, and even the texture of dry mounting tissue.  It takes skillful technique, special materials, and decent tools to produce a smooth looking, mounted glossy print.  Tape, hot glue, hinges, corners, ordinary dry mount tissue, and ordinary adhesive are not on the how-to list if you want to keep that mirror-like surface from looking like glossy oatmeal or a fun-house mirror.

A big part of the reason Mr. Lik surface mounts his glossy prints is that it gets around the textural issues of any other type mounting.  Surface mounting is actually a fairly economical way to go if you have a good production pipeline set up.  The ticket is that you will waste a few $1000's worth of materials learning how to do it correctly, you need a very good laminating machine, and you must learn to control your emotions as you toss a high ratio of expensive, reject pieces into the trash.

[orchidblooms]

That $140 treatment will not fly very well if you're trying to make art to sell, because if you show up at a gallery or art fair with that something like that they'll be laughing about you for the next 3 years.

The Achilles heal of mounted metallic prints is that they spotlight the tiniest ripple, speck of dust, bump in the substrate, and even the texture of dry mounting tissue.  It takes skillful technique, special materials, and decent tools to produce a smooth looking, mounted glossy print.  Tape, hot glue, hinges, corners, ordinary dry mount tissue, and ordinary adhesive are not on the how-to list if you want to keep that mirror-like surface from looking like glossy oatmeal or a fun-house mirror.

A big part of the reason Mr. Lik surface mounts his glossy prints is that it gets around the textural issues of any other type mounting.  Surface mounting is actually a fairly economical way to go if you have a good production pipeline set up.  The ticket is that you will waste a few $1000's worth of materials learning how to do it correctly, you need a very good laminating machine, and you must learn to control your emotions as you toss a high ratio of expensive, reject pieces into the trash.

if a person were to set out to learn how to do this sort of work for themselves.. ala-lik...

what sort of 'laminating' machine should 'we' be on the look our for?

P.

[bill t.]

^^ A motor powered feed is desirable because it frees up both hands to guide the art, peel off cover sheets at the last possible instant as the media enters the rollers (which prevents trapped dust problems) and generally intervene if things start going wrong.  But even with a manual laminator you can get a lot of those benefits if two people are available.  It's nice to have a feed roll for the adhesive with enough drag or active tension to keep the adhesive roll taught during feed.  And big squishy rollers are better than smaller, harder ones.  But you have to balance the sophistication of your laminator against how much stuff you plan to actually laminate.  Some of the fancier laminators require up to a couple feet of leader, which causes high wastage when do just one or a few pieces at one time.  Can't give you any brand recommendations, since the last powered laminator I used was a great working but no longer available import that was far better than anything I have seen recently in that category.  Seal and Coda make good laminators, but I haven't used one personally.

If you buy a used laminator, be sure the rollers are still supple and crack-free.  Scrutinize each roller for flat spots due to storage with the rollers jammed together.

And for any laminator make sure you can obtain spare parts, which is not a certainty for a lot of the imported laminators you see on the 'bay.  Perhaps your first contact with an unknown laminator supplier should be to call up and ask for a replacement roller for the model that interests you.

[orchidblooms]

great info and advice bill. thank you

phil

[BobDavid]

I prefer to exhibit without glass. Especially when I display prints in a setting where I am not able to control the lighting. A nice double matte and a good frame preserves the dignity of a print. If someone wants to purchase the print, I will put glass in the frame.

[graphicjoe]

I started framing using glass. But as my prints got bigger (eg 24 X 36) the framed prints became too heavy, and I was often worried that someone would get hurt by glass shards if a framed print was dropped. Now I do everything myself, using high quality acrylic and archival materials throughout. I have a wood shop so I can easily make frames as I want them to look. So I spend a good deal of time getting everything as I want it, but the finished product looks great, I have complete control of the process from start to finish, and can reassure customers as to quality and safety, and there are no ugly surprises to deal with at any stage of the printing/mounting/framing process. I only have to find customers that care about quality as much as I do.


Joe

[Kirk Gittings]

Scotch tape!! (smacks forehead!!)  If only I had known that 20 years ago, I could have had ALL of my work look like crap!