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Mounting Prints - Page 3

Notes on Mounting Prints
  Continued from Page 2, Point 5:

6.
Again on the back of the new mount, mark the guidelines for cutting with the bevel cutter. These depend a bit on the cutter you have - mine requires these lines to be exactly one inch nearer the centre than the cut is to be made.

7.
Holding the board down firmly, place the cutter guide on the line and cut. Dangers here are that the cutter guide will slip (hold the guide down very firmly), that the cutter head will distort if you press too hard (don't) and that you will cut too far. The other cutter guidelines at 90 degrees tell you when to stop! Your blade needs to be sharp and you should always have more pressure on the ruler or cutter guide than on the knife or cutter. You may well find that you haven't cut through enough (repeat) or far enough (use the craft knife to finish the job).

8.
Mount the print on the backing board which can with advantage have first been coated with white paper, because modern printing papers tend to be a bit thin and transparent, so any darkness behind your print will show through and dull your highlights. Cut the result to a size which will enable you to fasten it to the back of the matt with masking tape - about half to one inch smaller than the matt.

9.
Fix some temporary pieces of masking tape to the edges of the backing board, place the matt over it, in exact position lightly press the tape to the back of the matt, check that it's right, turn it all over and fasten down firmly with more masking tape. Check it all again! Clean up any marks with the rubber.

10.
It's well worth while to practice the use of your cutter and guide before you use it for real! And your cutting mat will last longer if you put scrap board over it when making bevel cuts.

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From a talk to GPC by Ron Head - January 2007