Matting 101

    Ok so here is the entry about matting I said I would do a while back. The first step is to print out the photo on high quality paper. After the paper has cooled and the ink has dried the print is ok to be matted. Because all the photos are a different size they need to be trimmed. So Judy has a rotary cutter in her room and it can take off the tiniest of slivers of paper so its really good for precise trimming. Then there is a special wax paper which you tack to a corner of your photo. To tack the wax paper onto the photo you use a tacking iron. It basically melts the wax to the photo so you can attach the photo to the board. So you tack the wax paper in two opposite corners on the photo. The photo and wax paper are then trimmed till they are the same size. After they have been trimmed you have to select your mat board size and color. I usually use the same size for my photos and usually use a black background as opposed to a white background. Now on the photo with the wax paper there are two corners that you did not tack to the photo, once you line up the photo on the mat board you tack these two free corners to the mat board. You now have a photo that is tacked to the mat board. You then place the entire photo mat board combo into the press. Its basically a large flat clamp. It gets up to 225 degrees F and you close it onto the photo and hold for 30 seconds. This melts the remaining part of the wax paper to the photo and mat board, effectively gluing them together. If all of the wax paper does not melt then you press it for 10 second intervals until it is fully connected.

     That is how you mount a photo.