The Artist Proofs

The final prints

It was a nice weather today and allowed cutting the aluminum panel outside. What a healthy workout!
This print is finally mounted, 6 feet long. The mounting process is interesting. First, a larger piece is cut out from the 4’x8′ archival aluminum composite panel. The edges are sanded to avoid damage to the silicone cylinders in the cold mounting press. Then panel is cleaned and washed to remove all aluminum dust. After the protective film is peeled off, the archival double-sided adhesive film gets applied to the painted aluminum surface in the first run through the press. In the second run print with the oversize border gets mounted on top. Only then it is ready for trimming all of the extra stuff around the print, on all 4 sides. When composite aluminum panel is cut with a blade the edge raises a bit. Instead of sanding it off I simply pushed it back in by rolling a smooth metal surface of the cutter handle over the silicone release paper placed over the edge. This gives the edge a clean look. Tomorrow another adventure, cutting the oversize mat for this by hand. There is a computerized mat cutter in the shop, but they all seem to be limited to 60″ mat length. And then the second print!

Here is bit more detail on how the prints get mounted. I am so lucky that this shop has everything I needed. But most importantly, it has Alex Kreymerman – if you need help with framing or printing, look no further. You get the freedom of doing what you need and help where you need it.

The mat cutting in a large size turned out to be surprisingly simple. This ruler is indispensable, besides protection for hands, it is gentle to the surface, residing on a couple of silicone or some kind of non-slipping rubber cylinders that extend through its entire length. Still, for cutting out the final mounted print from the oversize panel I thought its safer to use silicone release paper from the mounting adhesive film.

Now both large prints are mounted and ready for framing.. as soon as I stop sneezing (what a timing) will sign them and move to this step:)

The smaller size prints – ready to go!

Installation

We are here!

What would I do without her:)

All done! With my most precious Original:)