Advice on mounting darkroom prints to glass

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horacekenneth

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I'm considering mounting some darkroom prints to glass by either sandwiching or gluing. They are going to hang in a local coffeeshop. I have done very little mounting or framing of any kind. Any suggestions on what I should look out for or where I should go?
 

vdonovan

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I would try 3M spray mount adhesive. That's my go-to for any kind of flush mounting. Buy a small can and try one first, see if you like it. You'll also need a roller.
 

ROL

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First of all, I don't see the point of mounting a potentially archival work in a decidedly unarchival manner. If you are going to smash prints against glazing, why not just run off some inkjets? But if you proceed with your intention of dishonoring the media, I would strongly advise using plexi instead of glass. Hell, why not just lacquer 'em?
 
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holmburgers

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Sandwiching between glass... :pinch:

Don't do it!

I agree with ROL on this.

Trying to mount a print by squeezing it between two pieces of glass is bad practice in many ways. For one, it doesn't look good, in my opinion, but more importantly, it's bad for the long term life of the print. You don't want something touching the front of the print, that's the whole point of a window mat in traditional framing. When (not if) you are met with humidity & temperature changes, the print will expand & contract and if it's in between two pieces of glass you're going to get serious problems with waviness of the print and worst case scenario, you might get gelatin stuck to the glass surface and eventual print damage.

Now, to somewhat contradict myself, there is a technique called face-mounting, where the image side of your print is stuck to a sheet of glass/plexi with adhesive. This is by no means considered archival, in the sense that once you do this you're never getting your print off the glazing, but this is something that you'll see done by high end studios. So it's a viable technique, and it could in theory withstand the longhaul, but if the plexi glazing is scratched or the glass glazing is broken, you're done. It's definitely "a look" though.

So take what I say as food for thought if anything. A 3M mounting adhesive specifically designed for photographs should be groovy and there's also a 3M product called PMA (positionable mounting adhesive) that would allow you to do similar things.
 

removed account4

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I'm considering mounting some darkroom prints to glass by either sandwiching or gluing. They are going to hang in a local coffeeshop. I have done very little mounting or framing of any kind. Any suggestions on what I should look out for or where I should go?

are the images "regular sizes" ?
the problem with putting images directly against glass is that
if it gets HOT the emulsion will adhere to the glass and you won't be
able to remove the prints from the glazing.
if they are regular sizes get some pre-cut matboard ( or have them cut for you )
and get "gallery clips" which are inexpensive, frameless mounts or go to
some have a masonite board on the back and a hole in one of the clips to hang from ...
or sandwich between the glass with a matboard, so you won't damage the print ...

good luck with your show !
john
 
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