Museum Conservation Framing

The Long Version

Would a museum drymount a Rembrandt? No! Should you frame your relatively inexpensive print using a paper mat and regular glass? Probably not, but how much extra are you willing to pay for acid free materials? Is it worth the upcharge? Only you can make that value judgment.

There are numerous levels of quality in conservation framing techniques and materials, but the basic idea is to do no harm to the artwork.

To UV or Not To UV?

Glass: Ultraviolet light will cause colors to fade and media to break down chemically. Is it worth the extra cost, usually twice the price of regular clear glazing, to use Conservation Glass to filter out 97+% of the damaging rays before they reach the art? Maybe, but if the piece is hanging in direct sunlight, over time, that 3% will ruin your treasure no matter what kind of glass you choose. The best first line defense is strategic placement or hanging. Hang prized pieces out of direct sunlight and on interior walls, rather than those in contact with the outdoors; there will be less temperature fluctuation, and bump-ons, placed on the lower corners, should keep the frame from direct contact with the wall. Once you have taken these measures, then decide whether the piece warrants the extra money for long-term piece of mind. Regular clear glass filters out 47% of the damaging UV rays, so it's actually doing something.

Plexi: Plexiglass is more expensive than glass, but for large pieces the reduction in weight is often necessary. Most people can't tell the difference between glass and plexi in a finished piece, so the consideration is usually a weight issue; plexi comes with UV protection, for an upcharge. Plexi doesn't break into small fragments that could damage your artwork, so if you are shipping a piece via UPS or envision an earthquake (or a small child) playing with or around your piece, plexi makes sense. I've shipped hundreds of glassed pieces via Fed Ex Ground, and nothing has been broken, but I am a master wrapper. If your packaging skills are closer to those of my Dad, consider plexi.

Cost Difference: 24" x 20" piece of glass - UV: $22.57, Premium Clear: $12.98
24" x 20" piece of plexi - UV: $92.31, Clear Acrylic: $53.43

The Final Word:
Acrylic is expensive, but UV glass is a relatively inexpensive insurance policy. Personally, I am not a fan of reflection control glass. Unless you use the really expensive museum glass, the image appears fuzzy. Just deal with the reflection.

Keep Ragging On Me!

Matboard: The answer is cotton rag or an acid free/lignin free equivalent product, always, always, always. The mat touches the art every hour of every day, day or night, light or dark, so it's fairly important. Paper mats contain lignin and other acids, which will damage your art, guaranteed. If you have to watch where you spend your custom framing dollar, spend it on the quality mat. Look at a piece of art on your walls at home. Do the mat bevels have a yellow cast rather than clean white? The yellowish color signifies acids leaching from that piece of matboard into your masterpiece. Get the art rematted or expect a nice brown rectangle of acid burn on your piece of art. There are many brands of acid free matboard, some better than others. Some are buffered and acid free, but it's a good idea to use the museum quality boards, which are 100% acid/lignin free; take a look at the back side of the mat sample for the details. If it's good enough for the museum, you want it next to your art.

Cost Difference: 24" x 20" regular mat with one cutout - Rag: $20.91, Paper: $12.78

The Final Word:
The mat is a relatively small part of the entire cost of a custom framing job; most of your money is tied up in the moulding. Treat yourself and your piece of art right, spend a little extra on the piece of mind that the museum grade boards will provide. Be aware that there are boards made of paper yet claiming to be buffered, neutral pH, and acid free. Just go with cotton rag or 100% acid free/lignin free, museum grade matboard, please. Your grandchildren will thank you, as might the grandchildren of the person who buys your piece at your next garage sale when you rework your interior design scheme. Also, there are boards that claim to actively remove particulate matter from the air, so they actually clean the art environment. This sounds a little fishy to me, but companies spend a lot of money promoting these boards, so maybe it works. What happens to the board when the special active fibers get tired or want a day off from guard duty?

The Final Final Word: Granted, a little extra on glass and a little extra on rag board and soon enough your small framing project has turned into an Army toilet seat procurement crisis, but I will eventually have to pay for my kids' college education, so think of it as an investment in America's future.

Go to the Mount!

The question is which mount? Drymount? Wetmount? Vacuum Mount? Acid Free Tape Mount? Pressure Mount? Spray Mount? Museum Mount? Unless you live in outer space, gravity exerts it's special forces upon your art, so you and your framer must affix the art to the mat package, or backing if you are floating the print. You can achieve this through a variety of processes, but generally you want the chosen method to be reversible, which means the piece of art can be removed from the mat package without damaging the art. The goal of reversibility eliminates most of the mounts described above, except for a museum mount using Japanese paper and wheat starch paste. The dry/wet/vacuum/pressure mounts are not reversible. Even if they claim to be acid free, there is no simple way to remove the art from the backing; it's there for good, or at least until the adhesive totally fails. Even the acid free tapes take some of the paper from the print when peeled; trust me, I've seen it with my own eyes. The only adhesive that is completely reversible with water is wheat starch paste. You want reversibility, and you also want strength, but more importantly, you want the mount to fail, (stay with me here) rather than tear the artwork, if the frame should fall from the wall or survive an earthquake or other disaster, natural or man made. It's usually easier and cheaper for a framer to repair a failed mount than for a conservator to repair a chunk of missing paper from the print itself. People often dry/wet/vacuum/pressure mount art because the waves in the print are eliminated. Waves in paper reflect the atmospheric conditions of the surroundings; a framed piece of art is not a sealed environment, and that's a good thing. Air and humidity circulate through the framed art package constantly, so environmental changes will affect your piece, and this is why dry/wet/vacuum/pressure mounts are not your best option. The environmental changes are still working upon your piece, but the artwork itself cannot react because it's completely glued to the backing board. The art is trying to stretch, but it can't, so the backing board may start to flex or eventually the art may tear internally, small at first and then larger and larger. This may take years, it all depends upon the daily/monthly/yearly atmospheric changes occurring in the general area surrounding your piece. If it's a poster that you don't want to pass on to the grandkids, then it probably won't matter, but if it's your grandmother's birth certificate, you should choose the museum mount. I use Japanese paper and wheat starch paste to mount everything, unless one of the other mounts (dry/wet/vacuum/pressure) are specifically requested by the customer who has an issue with wavy paper. Personally, waves don't bother me. Some days are more wavy than others, but at least my art can stretch and breathe.

Get off my back!

Normally the front mat with the opening is taped, with acid free tape, of course, to a backing board, once again, acid free museum quality board, to which the piece of art is mounted. Everything that touches the art should be acid free/museum quality, and everything in the vicinity, other than the moulding, should be acid free, at the very least. The matboard sandwich containing the art is then backed with a more rigid backing material like foam core; notice I did not say cardboard. Acid free foam core is readily available, granted it's twice as costly as regular foam core, but it's also a necessary component of your museum quality package. Who knows what kinds of gases are leaching out of regular foam core and cardboard, even acid free cardboard? Acid free foam core is the best option available at a reasonable price, so ask for it.

Cost Difference: 24" x 20" Museum Mount: $27.27, Drymount: $19.39, Wet Mount: $18.53 Spray Mount: $15.66, Pressure Mount: $20.45

The Final Word: Unless you absolutely, positively cannot deal with waves, go with the Museum Mount, but, and this is a big but, make sure your framer is using Japanese paper and wheat starch paste, not simply telling you they are providing you with a museum mount. I should hope you trust your framer, and hopefully, your framer is worthy of that trust, but you can ask, out of curiosity, of course, to see their current batch of paste and their supply of Japanese paper? Is the paste moldy, or do they make a fresh batch for each job; that's possible, and even a good idea, but do they have the powder on hand at the very least? Is the pile of Japanese paper covered with dust? Do they even have a supply of it in the shop? Most framers are good people who do good work, but if you are paying a little extra for higher quality materials, you deserve those higher quality materials. Fair is fair. Note, tapes with pre-applied adhesive, like Filmoplast, are not easily and completely reversible. They have their uses, but not on Grandma's birth certificate, and not when you are paying for a museum mount.

Calgon, take me back to the framing page, please!

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