DIY Workshop - Mount Cutting

As I mentioned in this post, I was selling a selection of my paintings in The Art Market at the Leeds College of Art Degree Show, Going Going Gone.

As part of getting getting ready for The Art Market, I spent a few weeks preparing and presenting my works to be sold throughout the duration of the show. This included mounting, backing and wrapping my paintings to make them look neat and professional so people would be inclined to buy them. (That was the theory anyway!) In the interest of you I have decided to write a post that acts as both a tutorial of how to make your own mounts and a review of this Jakar mount cutter. I bought this mount cutter at The Range, but you can also find them online at Ebay or Amazon.

When I bought the mount cutter, I also got the matching ruler which allows you to easily slide the cutter along the ruler using the groove in it. The cutter enables you to slice paper and card at an exact 90° or 45° angle, which is handy when wanting to cut your own mounts for framing your beautiful artwork.

The first thing you want to do is work out how wide you would like your border to be around your picture. To get an idea of how thick you want it to be it could be useful to place your artwork on the mount board and draw out some guidelines. (I usually go for a border that is no bigger than 4 or 5cm depending on how much board I actually have). What you want to do is measure the dimensions of the piece of work, then add on double the desired border size to the height and width, and cut it out.

For example; 

If your painting is 20cm x 20cm and you want the mount to be 5cm in width, you want to cut out a square that is 30cm x 30cm.

Or

If your drawing is 40cm x 80cm and you want the mount to be 4cm in width, you want to cut out a rectangle that is 48cm x 88cm

Now you have your square or rectangle of board cut out, it's time to cut out the aperture. (This is the hole in the middle of the board where your picture will be framed within). However, before you do any cutting, you need to mark where you will cut, as you want the hole to be bang in the centre of the board. To do this, measure the desired border width from each edge of the board and lightly draw the line you will cut. Once you do this there should be a smaller square drawn in the middle, which you will cut out.

If I use the first example, I would draw a line parallel to each edge that is 5cm from it, leaving me with a 20cm x 20cm box in the middle of the 30cm x 30cm board.

Next comes the actual cutting! Set the cutter to the 45° angle and place the ruler along one of the lines. 

Note 1: To get the bevelled edge correct, cut the line with the cutter pointing inwards to the centre of the board!

Note 2: While cutting be sure to go at a slow pace. This is because when you push the cutter to move quickly, the blade gets forced into the board, leaving you with a bowed cut rather than a straight cut.

Great, Now you have your mounts cut! The next step is to stick your picture to the mount. To do this, put the mount face down and tape the picture to the back of the mount. (I find it best to use masking tape as it offers the opportunity for the picture to be removed from the mount later on without damage).

Now all that is left is backing the picture to hide the tape. Cut out some paper that is exactly the same size as the mount and stick it to the back of the mount with something like PVA glue or double sided sticky tape. (I usually try not to stick anything to the actual picture so that it can be removed from the mount without ripping).

And there you have it, a quick DIY lesson on making and mounting your own work!

So what do I think of the Jakar mount cutter? I think it is a great product that you should really consider buying if you are wanting to mount and present your artwork. It is simple use especially with the groove in the attached ruler, making it easy to slide along. It is perfect for works smaller than 60cm as long as you go slow with the cutting to avoid the bend. Anything larger can still be done but requires some accuracy as you have to move the ruler. The greatest thing about it though is that you can cut yourself any size mount you want, as many times as you want!