… Face mounted acrylic prints are an extremely popular way to
display and exhibit images or artworks all over the world …

About AcryLuxe Mounting System

AcryLuxe Face Mounted Prints

I have been a photographer since I was teenager, and have always loved prints. In the early days I mostly photographed landscapes but over the last 10
years I have concentrated more on bird photography.
I had seen a few acrylic face mounts in Europe, a few years ago and the clarity, depth of fine detail, overall saturation of colours, blew me away. I decided I
needed to get some of my images printed and face mounted.
Companies like Whitewall and Greiger in Germany appeared to be at the forefront, and photographers like Peter Lik in the USA, had developed huge markets
for this style of mount. I decided to research how face mounted acrylic prints were mounted. It turned out to be a guarded business with everybody protecting
their IP. The original concept was invented by a European company who developed a process, they called “DiaSec” to mount photographs behind acrylic
using liquid silicon to increase the longevity of the prints, particularly for museums and galleries. There are about a dozen or so companies licensed to do
the “DiaSec” mounting process around the world. Another way to do face mounted acrylic prints is by using a sticky double sided transparent film, which
is predominantly done in the USA. After a lot of research, I discovered it was considered very difficult process to achieve consistency, and to expect a
lot of failures.
After experimenting with both methods and talking with several experienced overseas printers and face mounters, I realised, the method, using liquid
silicon, although much more difficult and time consuming, produces the superior long lasting face mounted image.
Owning a large format printing and sublimation business, I already had most of the equipment needed to print and face mount images, so I began to experiment using
liquid silicon to mount some inkjet printed images. After lots of trial and error, lots of mess, lots of disappointments and lots of failures, a few small wins,
the pieces gradually started to fall in place.
The Covid lock down in 2020 gave me the impetus to finally put all my learning together, which spawned an idea to develop a business as I finally had a
face mounting system in place, that worked incredibly well. It required purchasing some new equipment to streamline the process, and make it more
economic.
Also the finishing of the mount is very important and to that end I purchased a diamond edge polishing mill. This produces highly polished glass like edges,
which beautifully finishes the mount.