lsupremo Loc: Palm Desert, CA

I have seen images mounted looking as if it was sandwiched between a piece of clear acrylic and a stiff something or other like plastic, acrylic, or mounting board and squeezed together into a solid item. Then mounted on the wall using 3/16” standoffs to give it a floaty look.

Question: how is this done?

bleirer

Just enter your credit card and press return. https://www.bayphoto.com/wall-displays/acrylic/acrylic-prints/

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I think he meant the process.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

There are a number of methods, styles, and processes.

The oldest one is LAMINATION where the print is sandwiched and dry mounted between a solid material- wood, veneered composition board, Masonite, or particleboard and a thin sheet of transparent plastic. Heat and pressure are applied and a laminating press and at the correct time and temperature the item you are describing results. It can be flush-mounted, a border can be added in the sandwich, the edges can be beveled, chamfered, painted or gilded. There are various surface finishes and textures available.

This process became popular in the late 1940s- used for photographs, certificates, diplomas, and many kinds of paper documents.

There are other methods sung special adhesives and lacquer but the are rather messy and difficult unless you have experience.

You may also have seen photographs embedded in acrylic, sort of a cube of solid plastic.

Laminating services are available through some color labs, custom framers some art supply stores, and lamination specialists.

MrPhotog

In a word: Glue

More detail:

Version 1.) use a very small amount of clear glue, like Duco, to tack photo into position on backing. Only 1 or 2 drops. Let harden.

Mix a clear plastic resin. Could be acrylic, polyester, vinylester, or epoxy. Depending on size you light need just an ounce or two.

Lift photo carefully and apply the mixed resin to the back. Try to get all the area wet. Drop the photo onto the resin working from the center out to edges to avoid air bubbles.

Pour a quantity of the resin in a puddle over the center of the photo and set the cover glas on top. The weight of the glass should Start to spread the puddle to the edges.

Carefully slide the sandwich into a vinyl vacuum bag. You can make one from clear vinyl sheet with three sides sealed. When sandwich is in the bag seal the remaining edge. Connect bag to vacuum pump and suck out the air.

There are vacuum presses sold for about $100 for applying wood veneer. These use a hand pump. Google veneer vacuum systems.

You can watch the resin spreading evenly over the print and the excess will squeeze out the edges.

Once the resin is cured, remove your print and trim the excess resin from the edges. Glue on a strip of wood on the back by the top to hang it, and a second block of the same thickness at the bottom to keep it even away from the wall.


Version 2.). Glue or dry mount your photo to a piece of tempered hardboard (also called masonite), or to MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard), or MDO (medium density overlay-a type of plywood with the outer surface being a thin layer of MDF. All three of these materials are super flat, with no grain. They also will not expand or contract over time with changes in humidity. You can also use acrylic or glass.

Trim mounted print to fit the board. You may want to paint the edges black.

Glue mounting strips to back as described above. I like using pieces of 1x2. It is cheap and floats the picture 3/4” from the wall.

At this point you can just use spray lacquer to seal the print.

However, if you want it to have a deeper effect, use an epoxy table-top coating. Google this. These are frequently advertised as being 50 times the thickness of other coatings. I’m not sure how accurate that figure is, but they do go on about 1/8” thick.

This is basically a thick epoxy resin. You pour it on your mounted print and it slowly flows over it and levels out. Then it hardens.

If the final coating has ripples or surface defects they can be sanded smooth after the material has had plenty of time to cure, with very fine grit sandpaper and then the surface can be polished to an optical clarity.

The material tends to flow over the edges, giving a soft, rounded edge. If you want a crisp hard edge you can trim it easily before the resin cures completely hard. Once it hardens it can still be trimmed, but it takes more effort.

DebAnn Loc: Toronto

Search for PLAK-IT® which mounts your photo, print, etc. on a board - mine look like mdf. It is very effective and very durable. I had a couple of posters mounted this way. There are lots of places that can do this system.

User ID

Verrrrrrry informative and interesting...
But I like bleirer’s “process” better !

Howard5252 Loc: New York / Florida (now)

If you want the floating look, BayPhoto does a fine job; I use their X-Poser prints. They are on the expensive side so I would suggest sending them only your best work. Try it with one print, see if you like their work.

lsupremo Loc: Palm Desert, CA

Thanks to all of you responding Hogers, you gave me a great start on my search.