Mat opening floats above print - how do I get it to be flush?

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Hi Ralph,

Yes, these are Nielsen frames with spring loaded clamps. What appears to be happening is that the clamping force at the edge are just fine but there are enough give in the "system" that where the mat opening meets the print, there isn't enough clamping force. So if there are any inconsistencies in flatness of the print or the mounting, it won't lay flat. I was able to resolve this by carefully flattening and cooling the print/mountboard combination.

You can try putting some archival foam core behind the mount board to stiffen the back a little bit. But truly, if you want fiber prints to lay perfectly flat in your window mat, you really should think about dry mounting.
If that's not something you want to do (I don't like dry mounting, and framers at a couple of big museums have told me not to), then consider using a stiffer backing board that will provide more force against the back of the print.

If you go to museums and look at vintage prints, many of the ones I see don't lie perfectly flat either. My own prints are framed and matted using hinged window mat, and a print mounted using nothing but photo corners. With the seasons humidity changes, the different materials expand and contract, and in the low humidity winters we have in Minnesota, the gap at the window mat is always a bit bigger. Not a big deal, honestly.

 

[jeffreyg]

As others have suggested I also use archival corners, 4 ply acid-free backing board, 4 ply or 8 ply window mat, acid-free foam core board behind the backing board and Nielsen frames. With the Nielsen frames there are different size channels so you can get frames that will closely accommodate the thickness of your mounting materials. Also for larger frames you may need to try additional clips. Despite all that changes in heat and humidity may still cause slight changes.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

 

[tkamiya]

Thomas,

Yes, that's what I ended up doing. Dry mount the print. Then had to work carefully as my press is not large enough - but I got it to work. Form core board has always been behind the mount board.