A little overview of my technique for mounting linen on a panel.
Here, I am using wood panels, but it would be just the same for ACM panels (plus an added step of roughing them up with 150 sandpaper and wiping them down before applying adhesive). Please enjoy my professional artist attire (I mean, it's important to be comfortable in the studio), husband videography, and obsession with keeping stacks of cinderblocks in various household closets.
Exciting new COVID-19 option: Pretty sure this burns at least 1000 calories if you're in need of a quarantine workout. No cinderblocks? I've also used barbells, plate weights, and sandbags. Was just thinking bags of soil in the garage would work too. Maybe wet lumber? A chest of clothes? Gallons of water? Or just park the snowblower on your panel after covering it with plastic and a piece of plywood. Alas, books are not heavy enough unless you're prepping very small panels.
Supply List:
Wood or ACM panels
Oil primed linen cut to size (panel size + min 2 inches in each direction)
Mounting adhesive
Soft braer
Paper towels
4” high density foam roller
Sharp straight edge razor (don’t use a utility knife like I’m using here, it’s awful)
Cinderblocks or equivalent
Smooth, thick plywood for distributing weight
Smooth, clean floor or another, larger piece of plywood for placing panels face down.
Broom or large brush for cleaning grit from surfaces
Recommended: tweezers for picking inevitably remaining grit out of glue
Take a good look at your panel sizes and make sure you can account for all the surfaces being face down on a smooth surface and weighted BEFORE you start using any glue.
A couple of updates since I filmed this:
1. The good folks over at Artefex (been using their fantastic panels from time to time as well!) turned me on to the idea of putting adhesive on the back of my linen in addition to my panel. This may well do away with the problem of lifting edges! However, the adhesive I'm using in this video would not have a long enough open time for that, especially for large panels. Of course the goal is to advance in my career to a point where I can always order custom panels from Artefex. :D They even make copper panels! But in the meantime, I plan to give Rublev's mounting adhesive a shot, as it's supposed to have a longer open time. (If you're not already familiar with Natural Pigments, you need to be. Have fun.) Updates to come.
2. If you can over-cut your linen enough to wrap it around the edges and staple it on the back, this will also take care of edge lifting, though it's expensive and it does eliminate the pretty wood edges of your panels, which sometimes allow you to skip the cost of framing since they look nice on their own. Woo! Also, you have to do it really fast since they still need weight before the glue starts to set up.