| My photograph is rippling inside the frame. What causes this? And what can I do to fix or prevent this? |
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Rippling or buckling within the frame can be caused by several things. Moisture and temperature changes can often do this and sometimes cause permanent damage. The size of the artwork is also a factor. Larger artworks are altogether more vulnerable to the roles gravity and environmental changes play, given that there is simply more material—greater surface area and weight—to be affected. In other cases, rippling is merely the nature of the medium and isn’t something to be concerned with —paper-based watercolor paintings are a good example of this. If you have a piece that has undergone this sort of damage, there are options for flattening it, but results will depend heavily on the severity of the damage. Often, putting the piece in a vacuum press for a given length of time is safe enough to help flatten the piece without the use of any adhesives. Some instances allow for the piece to be dry-mounted to foam-core board for greater success, but this is a permanent process and is not archival. Extreme cases for severe damage or for delicate art may require a conservator’s evaluation. To prevent this from occurring to your artwork, you might consider having your piece dry-mounted before any damage has taken place. However, if conservation framing is important to you, dry-mounting may not be an option. In conservation framing, artwork is most frequently mounted using a variety of hinge methods which are applied only to the top edge of the artwork and are hidden from view (Click here for more on Conservation Framing). This means that the rest of the artwork is loose and simply hangs within the framing from the two or three hinges that have been applied. Therefore, it is very important to handle the framed piece with care: Be sure to only transport and store the artwork in its upright position. Display or store the artwork in a humidity- and temperature-controlled space. |