If you want to preserve photographs in an album or mount them for display, it’s tempting to reach for the tube of glue. However, over time the glue can react with the photos making them discolour. To avoid this happening and to keep your photos or any picture in good condition for years to come you’ll need to dry-mount these onto the page or board.
Dry-mounting sheets are available in craft or photographic shops and is essentially a thin waxy sheet that sticks the photos to paper or card when heated. It’s big benefit is that it will not deteriorate over time and is unaffected by moist conditions.
Place the photo face down and cover with a piece of the waxy sheet on top, with a cool iron (a wool setting should be ok) touch the centre with the tip of the iron to just fix the sheet in place. Turn over the photo with the sheet and trim the surplus edges so that the sheet matches the size of the photo. Put the photo in position on the mount or album page and cover with some kitchen towel, run the iron over the top to melt the waxy sheet, bonding it to the surface. It’s always best to try this on unwanted photos to make sure the iron temperature is not too hot.
If you wish to mount large photos or pictures, this process is not suitable, generally giving poor results. For these larger items, you should go to your local picture framer to get them professionally mounted.
There are many items that may require the dry-mount method. Generally anything that needs to be kept for a long time, small pet portraits, whether they’re your original photos or a water colour from a pet portrait artist can be fixed to it’s mount in this way.
Posted in: Crafts | Tags: pet portrait artist, pet portraits