Mounting How To Properly Mount Chochin / Handmade Gifu / High-quality paper produced from mulberry bark.

[Leoo]

Hi All,

Hope all is well. I would like to know if there is a safe way to properly mount a japanese art print that is made out of high qualify paper produced from mulberry bark. I'm planning to float this print on top of a mat so the edge of the paper will show. However I'm unsure what is the best material and method to use for this process. Please see attached pictures as well. Thank you so much!

 

[Leoo]

 

[Shayla]

Hi, Leoo. The Frame Tek site has wonderful articles on hinging methods. At the site, go up and click on 'articles'.
From what I've read, I think a lot of folks use wheat paste for this, but I use rice starch. I buy it powdered, in bottles from Larson Juhl. We buy our mulberry hinging paper from Hiromi Paper. It's also important to learn hinging on something else, before you try it on actual art. And if you first practice on something super thin, like magazine pages or copier paper, that's good. They're so likely to cockle that if you can master it with them, you're more likely to succeed elsewhere.

FrameTek, LLC

frametek.com

P.S. Here's something that I do, for if it ever helps. When I float hinge artwork, I often lay the (smaller) hidden float platform on the back of the inverted art, and trace lightly around it with a pencil. This is with thick cotton paper, watercolors, etc.... Then, after removing the eventual float platform, I attach hinges all around, near the outside of the art back, just inside that traced line. But, a few times, the paper has been so thin that the pencil might show through. When that happens, instead of tracing a light line around the eventual platform, I run strips of removable scotch tape. That helps me to still know where the hinges should go, and is easily removed. I don't know what anyone else does for super thin art papers, but this has worked for me.

 

[Ylva]

Search for hedgehog mount.
If this is

However, in this case, I would not bother with floating. I would over mat it. The edges are not all that interesting and you have plenty of space around the image.

If customer insists, explain that first of all it would be more expensive (a lot more labor involved) and second of all that it is not the best conversation method for something of value.

 

[glamorsidhe]

Hi All,

Hope all is well. I would like to know if there is a safe way to properly mount a japanese art print that is made out of high qualify paper produced from mulberry bark. I'm planning to float this print on top of a mat so the edge of the paper will show. However I'm unsure what is the best material and method to use for this process. Please see attached pictures as well. Thank you so much!

Leoo, just to add a footnote-comment to what Ylva said about matting vs floating your image: Since it is a Japanese print, why not incorporate original colored mulberry bark paper, either as a backing or possibly part of the matting into the image presentation? Visually, that would be quite an accent. (I have no idea if that type of "paper" is available in different thicknesses.)