What's a good adhesive that's photo-safe? for Questionland Seattle

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What's a good adhesive that's photo-safe?

I have a photo display board at my work. However, all the photos on it are 8x10 glossies in cheap and terrible frames, so we can only fit about 12 total photos on it.

I'd like to make better use of the board by taking those photos out of their frames and sticking them to the board directly, and place them closer together to create a photo collage that will allow much, MUCH more room for new photos, rather than the stagnant current display. Then I'll put a removable sheet of glass over the top.

SO, what's a good adhesive to stick photos to a wall or board surface that won't damage the photos over time. Remember this is going to be a collage, so the adhesive will be on ALL of the backs, but also on SOME of the fronts where there's overlap!

Some of these photos are old and the collage might be there a long time, so a safe archival-ish substance is pretty important.

Sacrelicious asked in Making Art/Crafting 10 months ago | Report

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Tracy M

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Hmmm...there is a wide variety of archival photo-safe glue sticks and other adhesives out there. Any decently-sized office supply, stationery, or scrapbooking store should be able to recommend some specific products/brands. (Personally, I'd try the main University Bookstore and ask them, as Stylus Paper & Pen (nee Sabtec) is out of business now). http://www.bookstore.washington.edu

But I'm a bit confused by your description. Are you hoping that, some time in the future, you can un-peel/un-layer the collage and have those bits of photo that had bits of other photos glued on top of them to be undamaged? Because that I've not really heard of. I know of lots of items that will glue to a wall or backing well, but if you want to be able to remove them later, that might be harder. In that case you may want to look into a hard laminate over each photo first. *shrug*

(You may already have thought of this, but rather than adhere them directly to the wall or board surface, I think it'll be easier if you get some sturdy posterboard in the same size as the photo display board. Then you can assemble the collage on the poster board on a flat surface. Once it's finished, you can transer the whole project to the wall). Good luck.

Tracy M answered in Making Art/Crafting 10 months ago | Report

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If youreworried about the fronts getting gunk on(even archival glues can be tricky to get off the fronts) just make color xeroxes of the photos use them in the collage and keep the originals safe and adhesive free

sublevelthree answered in Making Art/Crafting 10 months ago | Report

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Any adhesive you use needs to be acid-free, which can be purchased at any arts supply store. I don't know of any adhesive that you can put on top of a photo that won't damage it or leave a residue, but you could maybe stagger the photos, so at least some of the corners aren't overlapping.

Do you have the option of putting the collage on something metallic or could you paint the board with metallic paint? If you do that, you can use those tiny strong magnets that are popular these days. Here's one example: http://www.amazon.com/Three-Seattle-Mighties-Diameter-20500/dp/B002GU5XTK

keshmeshi answered in Making Art/Crafting 10 months ago | Report

3 comments by sublevelthree, keshmeshi, and Sacrelicious…