The Framers Forum

Had a nice print in for general tidying up. Noticed that it had a 100% rag mount with nice washlining on. No brown bevel evident so I wondered how the print had fared over the years (frame looked 50s). It's true! The rag mount hadn't left a trace of acid damage on the print.

Unfortunately..... the print was glued to a nasty board which had warped. What's worse the nice mount was glued to the front of the print. With pencil marks on the corners to define the print border margins one supposes. My original idea was to keep the mount on. But because it had been glued the mount edge had rippled all the way round.

Yours truly has now embarked on getting all the stuck down bits of mount off the surface so I can at least remount it without gaps around the edge.. Oh Joy.



* Cop the FATG stamp.

Removing the stuck down bits of the mount can be assisted with a temperature controlled hot plate. I have an electric hot plate with a variable temperature control, which I bought a few years ago from my local hardware store.

It has a nice flat surface and can be set to a low enough temperature to soften the glue from the reverse side of the undermount without having any effect whatsoever upon the artwork. I also have a temperature probe so I can keep an eye on any changes in the temperature of the hot plate, as although the temperature regulation of the hot plate is fine for cooking, I am aware of it's limitations and like to know what's happening.

Well I decided I could hardly make things worse so I had a go at it with a kitchen scourer and warm water. Carefully covering the image area with a bit of mountboard. Comes off a treat. Glue stains still present though but the glue residue all gone from the surface.

Mark's method is better, but I didn't want to remove the print from the board as well.


Next step is to tart up the frame. It's quite a nice oak which will come up well with a bit of wax polishing. Corners wobbly though and it's got about a 7mm rebate so I need to extend the back and put mending plates on. Hmmmmmmm........

I seem to remember reading in a Victorian novel a reference to the Picture Framer calling and disrupting the household. This would suggest that the role of the picture framer in a past time was to service the pictures in house and that much of the dilapidation found is due the lack of professional care in intervening years.

As a Casemaker I got called on to restore and clean up large cases in situ, I on occasions found evidence that the original craftsman and his heirs had revisited the work to do cleaning etc. as ongoing maintenance.