Float Mounting

A distinctive edge

Float mounting a print or original piece of art is a way to showcase the piece as a whole.  For example, you may have a watercolor with the natural watercolor paper edge, antique paper, or you might just like the crisp clean line of the paper your print was printed on.  There are many ways to float mount items, but for those types of pieces the following is the process I like to use:

I recently framed up two pieces that a customer brought into the gallery.  She bought these as souvenirs in India.  They are small paintings on antique papers.

Heron Artwork

Tiger Artwork

First the customer picks out a frame and a mat that they would like to compliment the artwork.  In this case our customer preferred a very simple flat black frame with a white mat.  You can float mount without a mat and just use foam core, but the mat adds a nice clean texture behind the piece and it is also easier to cut slits in (which is important with this kind of float mounting).

Tape

On these pieces, I cut 4 slits wide enough for our linen hinging tape to fit through: two on top and two on the bottom.  (On the heavier piece I used the linen tape, but on the smaller piece with lighter paper I used a hinging tissue.  That is just a preference—I have seen in various publications that it is better to use tapes/tissues that have a similar weight to the paper used in the artwork, but on certain papers the linen hinging tape won’t adhere as well. Then linen tape worked well with the heavier paper in this instance, so I felt it was the right option for that one.)

You can't see the hinging tape from the edge easily.

The cuts are in from the edge of the artwork, so as not to be easily seen.  Then I use a basic T-hinge, but sent the long part of the T though the mat.  So, the base of the T is on backside of the mat attaching the piece through the mat.  I also set these T’s to pull up on the artwork at the top and pull down on the artwork at the bottom.  (In normal hinging you would not have any hinges on the bottom of the artwork, but because the piece is not secured down by a mat pressing down onto the artwork it needs securing.)

The hinge on the backside of the matboard

Clear Spacer

Adhesive backing on the clear spacer.

To put this into the frame, I backed that mat with foam core.  It needs this because just a plain mat behind the glass is thing and will warp over time.  Then I attached adhesive-backed clear acrylic spacers to the glass.  These are at the very edge of the glass and fit into the rabbet of the frame without being obvious.  It is important that the paper doesn’t touch the glass.  You could also decide to mat around the float mounted piece.  Maybe giving the artwork an inch or more of space.  Depending on the curl of the edges this you could keep the piece from touching the glass by a single or double mat.

An inconspicuous spacer

Float Mounted Chinese Painting

This basic technique can be used on large or small pieces.  If it is a large piece you will obviously have to have a lot more T hinges.  I don’t remember for sure how many T hinges were on this Chinese painting a customer brought in last summer, but it was nearly 3 ft x 3 ft  quite a difference from these last two pieces that at their biggest were just over a foot long.