Picture Mounting Techniques - Picture Framing

Mounting a picture frame can be one of the daunting tasks in the whole framing process. Picture mounting is a process to secure a photograph to a mount or display board, and there are various method to do it. Which type of mounting needs to be done depends upon the budget, ease of doing it, availability of tools and conservation technique.

For mounting, acid free materials should be used, and mounted photo should be easily removable from the mount board. Materials that are being used for mounting should not be items such as rubber cement, as they have high acidic property. For household purposes, there are various inexpensive alternatives for mounting products and are safe for artwork as well.

Custom Picture Framing

Artwork tends to buckle over time and one of the reason artwork or frame buckles, because as temperature changes image, mat, and mount board all expand and contract at different rates. This is why, it is advised to leave the frames ‘free’ inside the frame to prevent it from damage. This can be achieved by mounting it with photo corners & hinging tissue. In order to give breathing area to the picture and freely expand and contract, it is important that the picture is hinged at couple of points along the top edge of the photograph.

Hinging the photograph to mat

The picture can be directly hinged on to the mat by the use of acid free hinging tape or tissue such as Lineco Self Adhesive Hinging Tissue. The main advantage of this style of picture mounting is that, the picture will remain centred under the mat, hence there is no need to hinge the mat to the mount board. However, this comes with a disadvantage that changing the mat can be a problem, as artwork and mat in this process are stuck together. Thus, this method is not recommended for selling pictures which are matted but are not framed.

Hinging mat to mount board

This technique of hinging is used for the most of the time by the framers. In this process, mat board is hinged to the mount board in order to keep it centred over the mount board. A good acid free hinging tape shall be used while doing so. In this process mount board is laid face up, mat board face down. The tops of both mat and mount are aligned. If Mat board is thinner than the mount board, then mat board needs to be placed in order to make it even with the mount board. Now, a piece of Linen tape is cut and stuck along the seam between the two boards. Later mat board is folded over , in order to position the right side up on top of the mount board.

Picture mounting – using photo corners

Photo corners are a great for archiving photo, as they do not allow any chemicals to come in contact with the artwork. Make sure to not use the photo corners made of PVC plasticizers or acidic compounds. The most common picture corners are made of polyester film, more commonly known as Mylar (Dupont Mylar Type D) and polypropylene. Photo corners help in providing extra support and are more used in the picture which have borders around it

Hinging the image to the mount board

Two types of hinges available in the market are T-hinge and V-hinge.

The T-Hinge

The T-hinge is all-purpose hanging method and is simple to apply and provide sturdy support. In this process, one piece of tape is used at the back of the picture and the other crosses over the exposed tape at 90 degrees and gets attached to the mounting board. However this type of hinging can only be done when matting is available on the artwork.

The V-Hinge

The V-hinge is a little complex to apply. This can be used when the matting is not there on the picture. V-hinge is hidden behind the picture; hence it works great with glass frames as it allows edges of the artwork to show.