09/23/2026
Hey Artists and DIYers! I’ve got a request on behalf of framers all over the world: Stop doing this. Lol. I have no idea if this artist mounted this gorgeous print themselves, but I want to use this as a visual example because it’s what we see most often with non-professional framing methods. It is true most artist tape is acid free or pH balanced. But that doesn’t make it preservation grade and this mounting technique is the antithesis to the proper mounting of original art. Art should never be mounted to the back of a window mat. A window mat is missing most of its mass and is floppy. The art should be mounted to a rigid substrate, suspended by hinges at two points at the top, or some other acceptable and appropriate technique. Then the window mat, hinged to the substrate, sweetly folds down and rests on top. In this example, the art on paper is completely restricted on all four sides to the back of a floppy window mat. The floppy mat also wants to expand and contract with changes in humidity, and so does the art, but in different ways… but it’s all locked up. Something has to give. The result is significant buckling of the art. This particular artist tape is an aggressive pressure-sensitive adhesive with plasticizers making it very difficult to remove. I didn’t catch this in the quoting process so I lose money on the time it took to remove the tape. Had I caught it, the customer would have had to pay more money for the fix. There was also the risk of damaging the artwork during removal. And remounting costs the clients extra money. I get it, framing is expensive so artists prefer to DIY matting and mounting to save money, and that makes total sense. It’s rough out there. However, it’s disappointing for your customers when they have to pay more money to reverse damaging techniques that could have been avoided. So, give preservation mounting a Goog! Proper mounting is actually easier than this too!
