Panels III- Lamination and Substrate Prep

For "Cold War Berlin" each panel will be effectively turned into a sticker before mounting to the gatorfoam substrate. The bottom layer is a pressure activated adhesive with a paper backing, while the top layer consists of a UV filtering matte lamination, which will protect the panels from fading and damage. The laminator was first webbed and adjusted to the proper tension, then checked for wrinkles, air bubbles etc. It is always good to do a test with a blank or duplicate.

Once your piece begins feeding through the rollers there's no adjusting, so make sure it is square with the feed tray and within the limits of the laminating materials. Our widest panel was 36" wide, and the laminator is 38", so there's little room for error. For an introduction into the world of large scale lamination, see here.


If possible, prepare multiple pieces and begin feeding them in as the one ahead comes through to avoid wasting laminating materials. Each piece must be brushed clean with a soft-hair brush to ensure that no dust/debris is trapped under the lamination. This can marr the professional appearance of your pieces.

Our 0.5" white gatorfoam substrate was prepped for mounting by painting the edges red to match our panel borders. Pieces of similar size were stacked and painted with a roller.

Panels were then stacked with small spacers and allowed to dry. Next, each panel will be thoroughly cleaned with a brush and tack cloth to remove and dust, debris or particles before the mounting begins.

Working relationships and sources.

Develop your contacts! Exhibitions require historic photographs, videos, graphics etc. to present the topic in ways that words cannot do. Copyrights require large sums of money so any contacts that you can make along the way will greatly increase your chances of excellence. Contacts are also great for artifact acquisition/loans, material discounts and outsourcing.

Photos

With a few well placed calls,
one can begin a working
relationship that can provide
many excellent sources for images.



Some possible sources are:
- Local museum personnel
- Instructors/professors
- Historians
- Embassies
- International Museums


Videos
If you are looking for sources of digital video, you can try broadcasters, but be prepared to pay up to $20/second! Instead, check out sources like Archive.org where such material can be obtained for little more than proper citation.

Materials
Take advantage of any all possible contacts to obtain materials at the best possible price. Talk to relatives/family in paint/hardware/lumber businesses, friends with scanners and printers etc. You'd be surprised how many people you know can provide help or advice of some kind.

The important thing is to get out into your local museum community and work/volunteer with other professionals. Its not what you know (well, it is to some extent), but its who you know. One leads to many and soon you will have many sources for affordable and/or free rights images, videos etc.