Help mounted artwork floating in glass

nicoleslie

Grumbler in Training
Joined
Sep 6, 2017
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1
Location
Metairie, LA
Forgive me if this topic has been covered, I'm new to the forum and couldn't find any threads dealing with my exact situation. Several months back a customer brought in 4 very old charcoal drawings that he wanted framed between two pieces of glass. I framed all four of them using a linen tape hinge, and a spacer between the pieces of glass. Two of them have come back because they are slipping. These two were mounted on some kind of mat board, making them kind of heavy. The other two weren't mounted so I assume they're fine. My challenge here is to try to protect these old pieces using the least damaging materials available, while still using something strong enough to keep them in place. Nothing I've tried seems to be working, and I'm at my wit's end. This is a customer who is used to getting what he wants. He's also good friends with the owner of my store (the owner is not a framer himself, we are a photo specialty store with a framing department, which is just me), so at this point I don't think I can tell him it can't be done. Any suggestions you can give me would be so appreciated. I understand why people like this look, but it is easily my least favorite thing to do.
 
Firstly, I would discourage this type of design for the very reasons you are mentioning.
If you must, you can multiple hinge the art to archival matt or 2 ply and then use a more aggressive adhesive to attach the art/matt package to the rear glazing.
Or, for the backing you can cut a hole. little smaller than art, in a piece of acrylic, fill with foam. and use that as backing.
 
You didn't mention size or weight, but for typical artwork sizes and weights I would be inclined to use pairs of rare-earth magnets, perhaps 1/8" thick x 1/4" square or 1/4" cubes, in all four corners of the artwork, with the back set of four magnets glued to the rear glass using cyanoacrylate (Super Glue). The spacer between the glass sheets should have to accommodate whatever that thickness turns out to be.

Your original mounts might have failed because the water-soluble gummed adhesive or pressure-sensitive adhesive used on most linen tapes will not stick to the smooth, non-porous surface of glass. But if you want to stick with your original mounting concept (pardon the pun) you probably could use acrylic gel medium to attach the linen tape hinges to the rear glass.
 
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