Yesterday was the grand opening of a photo show being held at The Guild and one of the requirements for the prints was to be mounted on foam core. It would have been easy just to order the prints professionally dry-mounted at $12 each but I decided to be cheap and try and save a few dollars by doing it myself.
Supplies for 5 8x12 prints:
- One Foam Core Sheet ($5 for white / $10 for black)
- Rubber Cement
Challenges:
- Rubber cement dries really fast. It's difficult to cover the entire print before the first half is already dried.
- Rolling a print on to paper is difficult even with the slightest specs of dust. The rolling process pushes the dust spots into the print coatings.
- Bubbles. Rubber cement is not permanent so it can be fixed but air bubbles are still an issue.
- Cutting a smooth edge requires a very share blade and foam core is hard on them. I had to switch blades a few times.
- Over night. Prints are placed under heavy books for a few days to make sure they stay flat. Again, risk of dust and other textures being pressed into the print.
As an overall, they obviously feel more like prints glued to a board as opposed to true dry-mounting where the print feels part of the board.
