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220 S. Wabash Ave. Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 431-9588

Mounting Services


Because Flax Art & Frame is a full service frame shop, we offer all manner of mounting techniques, depending upon the appropriate nature of what should be used. Here is a synopsis of what we offer for mounting:

HOT MOUNTING

While we strongly discourage the permanent mounting of valuable artwork, we do a lot of mounting of prints, posters, and newspaper articles. For this type of mounting, we use a hot mounting method with our DryTac Dry Mount Press. It will handle art up to 48 x 96". We can use this press to mount paper items onto foam board, mat board, solid cardboard mounting stock, Mightycore (an ultra-rigid foam board), Gilman Bros. "Rynoboard" or Gator Board (a rigid, laminated version of foam board).








COLD MOUNTING


When the art we are mounting is heat sensitive, but not especially valuable, we will use double sided sheets of pressure sensitive adhesive to permanently mount art without heat. We also have pressure sensitive foam board for this purpose. It is a lot more challenging to use this method on large pieces of art. It is easy to use on small things. With large pieces, however, you always run the risk of air bubbles getting trapped. The adhesives used are so aggressive that you only get one shot at getting the art down flat.

WET MOUNTING

When mounting fabric onto mat boards for wrapped mat treatments, or mounting prints or posters larger than 40 x 60", we will use acrylic based, brush-on adhesives to attach the art. We discovered that spray adhesives dry out over time and are not very permanent. Also, they are toxic to the user over time and exposure. Not good stuff to breath! We do use an iron or a dry mount press, however, to help activate the adhesive after coating and smoothing the art down onto the mounting substrate. One of our suppliers coined the phrase "Miracle Muck" to describe this adhesive. It works great!

PRINTGUARD LAMINATING

If you want to mount an item on board but want to display it without framing and need to protect the surface, we can laminate it with a thin, matte finish plastic film called Printguard. This is a single side lamination, not to be confused with pocket lamination, which encapsulates the entire art, front and back in a plastic pocket and leaves a thin, clear halo of plastic seams all around the art. We do not offer pocket laminating. Printguard is adhered in our DryTac press and can be done on art up to 40" wide by up to 96" long. We use this material to laminate the front side of large maps that are getting framed, but don't get glass or plexi because the client wants to put push pins or map pins into the map. The Printguard film allows you to clean the map surface with a damp cloth to remove dirt and other indoor pollutants that build up on the map surface.

Shrink Wrapping
If you want to hang a print or poster on the wall, but do not have a budget for framing it, one solution that costs a lot less and is not permanent is Shrink Wrapping. We take your art, lay it on an acid-free board, and then encapsulate it in a plastic film that, using a heat gun, shrinks the film tightly around the artwork and board. Then, we add plastic "hang tabs" to the back of the film covered board so that you can hang it. It is great for college dorm rooms, where things hang for a semester or two, nothing gets broken if it falls off the wall, but the item shrink wrapped is preserved for future framing or alternative use.

HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT MOUNTING OR NEED A QUOTATION ON A MOUNTING JOB? CONTACT US AND WE'LL GET BACK TO YOU ASAP!