The Framers Forum

Hi All,

I just wondered what the consensus would be for this? It is an original watercolour on quite thick paper, supplied in a tube and has been weighted down for a couple of days - still not quite flat. It is having a single mount and is about 55 x 75cm.

I have been reading with interest about platform mounting on a recent thread - would that be the best method here as it isn't completely flat? Or will T-hinges and the mount be enough?

As always I bow to you all

Hi. The paper doesn’t seem to have cockled with the application of water colour paints and seems more to have been curled through being in the tube. Personally I would try to reverse roll it onto a tube or, as someone posted recently, a roller blind and leave it for an hour or so. This will flatten it completely to allow for normal T hinging to a backing board and thereafter the mount and glass will do the rest. It will stay flat as it seems to be a good quality paper.

Thank you Fitz, much appreciated.

It was in a tube for a good year I believe so maybe that is why it is a little stubborn. I will try reverse rolling it round the tube as you suggest and then hopefully happy days!

I would platform mount that regardless.

A window mount should cover the edge of the paper by at least 5mm and hinges should ideally be outside the image area but also about 5mm over the paper - so that would be just about doable but it’s a shame to cover work and a pity the artist left no blank paper margin.

A platform mount removes the hinge within or a bit close to the image area issue - and you would also be safe to cover less of the image area with your mount, but on that size I’d not go less than 3mm.
Also, if you cannot get it perfectly flat it can help a bit there too as there is a bit of pressure from the platform (fall out)

Thank you both,

I carefully reverse rolled it round the tube - with my heart in my mouth - for just an hour and it is now much flatter. I think I will have a look at platform mounting as it will give me some practice and there is no hurry for this.

When I evolved into framing for others, I had no idea there were so many variables to consider! I am on some accredited training courses over a few weeks but I do really appreciate learning from you all here too.