I have an old 8-pane wooden-framed window which I am going to hang on my wall and use as a frame for eight of Gunslinger’s art photographs, to create one large work of art to fill the black space over my couch. Each individual pane is approximately 9" by 12". The photographs are black and white full-frame prints from 4x5 film which, when trimmed, measure roughly 5x6 (although they could be enlarged; he’s printing them himself and thus has full creative control). I want to leave empty glass around each photograph and create the illusion that the photos are floating in the middle of the panes. How can I best accomplish this?
You could back each photo in glass, so that the photos are wedged between two peices of glass. Local home stores have plastic glass, not quite plexiglass, that you can buy and cut and its transparent.
I wouldn’t use an adhesive, but I would go with this method of wedgind the pictures between two pieces of glass: the existing glass and polycarbonate ‘glass’, which is very light and you should be able to find/cut it. You could come up with any number of ways to fasten the polycarbonate glass to the window. You should be able to find small clips that you can tighten down by hand.
The only way to do that would be to cut the plastic glass to exactly the size of each pane, however. The wooden frame extends about an inch past the panes on each side of the window.
Using the same material described by Philster, see if you can ge a sheet as large as the whole frame.
Mount the photos onto 1/8 or 1/4 inch thick styrofoam squares.
Mount the BACKS of these squares onto the big piece of plastic glass so that they will be projected forward into each little pane.
Secure the plastic glass to the back of the window frame.
If plastic glass is anything like plexiglass, keep this OUT of direct sunlight or the plastic will go white on you over time.
If you buy the “plastic glass” (clear acrylic sheet I think),
get the little cutter also. It is far, far easier to use the special scoring tool (similar principle to glass cutter) than to use a utility knife or saw to cut the stuff. You just use it to score the material then bend and it breaks cleaning at the scored line.