Top mount hinging is a strategic and method for displaying the entire surface of artwork on paper, all while adhering to preservation standards.

This example consists of series of illustrations taken from a book. The paper had become brittle with age and requires a delicate mounting method.

In this example, we are using mulberry hinging paper (weight 52 gsm) made by Lineco.

Here I am folding my hinges to be torn at specific lengths. The lengths of the hinge depend on the dimensions of the artwork as well as the type of hinge configurations you will be using for your project.

Hinging paper must be torn, not cut, to achieve feathered ends. The feathered paper fibers grab onto the artwork as well as the mounting substrate.

This is our starch-based adhesive. The paste creates a strong bond yet is completely reversible with water and patience.

The paste is applied to our hinging paper, and this combination is what mounts our artwork to our matboard.

When floating artwork, the goal of the design typically is to leave a matboard border around the artwork. Therefore, we need to think about how much space we are leaving around the artwork.

Here, using a scribe, I have marked faint lines a ¼ to ½ inch inside of the outside edge of where the artwork will lay.

Here I am using 2 different hinge configurations to hold our artwork. The hinges at the top can be called reinforced v-hinges and the bottom portion of the matboard will have what are called slide hinges.

The reinforced v-hinge has a crosspiece of hinge paper to hold down the v-shape that connects our artwork to the matboard. The crosspiece prevents the hinge paper from peeling up from our matboard.

Slide hinges are unique to my particular framing experience. They allow for movement yet prevent the bottom edges of the artwork from tipping towards the frame glazing. The horizontal crosspiece is only adhered to the matboard or mounting substrate, and the vertical piece is attached to the artwork.

In this step I applied paste to our horizontal crosspieces only and placed them within my boundary lines.

It is crucial to give this step proper drying time once the hinges are placed, as the hinges can peel up while they are still damp.

After the first round of applying the wheat starch paste and allowing it to dry, the vertical hinges should be free and only held down by the horizontal hinges.

Here, and as demonstrated on the next slide, we have centered the artwork on our matboard with polyester interfacing behind the hinges.

Weight the artwork so it does not move from its place.

Here I am applying paste to both feathered ends of the vertical hinges. These ends will be attached to the bottom section of the artwork; the slide hinges are only here to prevent the artwork from tipping towards the glazing.

Most of the strain will be on the top reinforced v-hinges as they hold onto the top portion of the artwork.

Here I have the artwork drying under glass weights. To prevent any damage to the artwork, I have a rag 2-ply matboard and acrylic glazing between the artwork and glass weight.

The artwork is finally secured without using an invasive mounting method. The project is now ready to be fit inside the frame. However, with this mounting method, we need to set the glazing away from the artwork to avoid any contact.

For this mounting method to work, we need a solid mounting substrate with a cushioned surface.

The steps to make this fabric-covered board are demonstrated in the following slides.

We need several materials to make our board: fabric glue, paint roller, fabric cutters, scissors, polyester batting, and fabric.

As the base of the substrate, I am using an acid-free foamboard. There are several different options we could use here, but this particular frame shop carries primarily foamboard.

The paper surface allows for the fabric glue to bond well with the fabric.

I cut the board about an eighth of an inch smaller than my frame size, before allowance. Due to the combination of fabric and batting being wrapped around the board’s edges.

I am using polyester batting to add cushioning to one side of the substrate.

Trim the batting to the size of the board. It will not be square due to the nature of the material. This is fine, I accommodated for the extra space needed for this board to go into the frame.

Since the artwork is a textile, I am using a linen fabric as the decorative background.

The fabric serves several purposes, a few being that it provides enough friction for the scarf to cling to the fabric and the linen covers our batting.

Trim the 4 corners of the piece of fabric. We are left with triangle pieces.

This is so the overlap of the fabric does not add too much bulk to the frame. The frame that was selected for the project has a rather shallow depth, and it is best to not have the framing package sticking out of the back of the frame.

We are gluing the edges of the fabric to the backside of our mounting board. I am using a fabric glue in this instance. It dries fast and becomes tacky within a minute.

This can be a hectic step in the project, be careful as to not get glue on the recto side.

Allow for proper drying time. I also secured the edges of the fabric with acid-free framer’s tape—just as an extra precaution.

Setting the scarf matters most here, because we want the borders of our background to look as even as possible.

The following step is to place the acrylic on top of the scarf, and it is difficult to tweak the edges of the scarf without tracking dust or scraping the acrylic.

After placing the acrylic, then the frame, onto the mounting board, it is important to apply as much pressure as possible when flipping to the verso side.

Put firm pressure onto the back of the board when using the fitting gun. The artwork is held in place by pressure, and we want to avoid the scarf from ever slipping over time.

The watercolor is done on a sheer paper, and it is transparent enough that my hinging papers will show through the watercolor.

In this instance, the watercolor is out of square, so I will have to do some tracing for my matboard substrate.

Place the artwork on a matboard that is cut larger than the frame size. We will be trimming the additional measurement off later in this process.

To achieve this particular mount, we need to cut into our mounting board. Here I am tracing the artwork since it is out of square.

The fallout from our mounting board will actually hold the artwork in place at the end of this process.

Cut the traced window a sixteenth of an inch larger than the dimensions of our watercolor.

Save the fallout. This piece will be used at the very end of this mounting method.

Here I have cut the face mat that will cover the matboard we cut into in previous steps.

I marked the placement of the window mat after making sure the mat window is placed as desired.

Essentially, we are making a tray for the watercolor to rest in.

Adhere the window mat to the matboard we cut into.

Dry time is critical here, as we do not want any clue or adhesive coming into contact with the artwork.

After drying, I trimmed the sides protruding out of the window mat.

Behind the watercolor is the fallout we saved from earlier.

Make sure everything fits together without the watercolor shifting out of place.

The final step is to flip over the contents and secure the fallout.

Here I used an acid-free framer’s tape. It is important to burnish the pressure-sensitive tape.