Robin,
We investigated Murals Your Way SmartStick Repositionable Wall Fabric for a
museum project earlier this year and decided after some experimentation with
samples we had requested from them, that anything that says its re-stickable
is going to be suspect and will require choosing amongst significant
trade-offs. Our gut feeling had already been telling us that these claims
were too good to be true even before we did our testing. If you have ever
used or played around with other repositionable materials such as old
fashion Zipitone self-adhesive film sheets, frisketing materials, cut vinyl
letters or shapes, shelf lining paper or vinyl, Post-It Notes, drafting
tape, repositionable spray adhesives, etc. you already know how the
qualities of such materials and their effectiveness. They typically adhere
reasonable well the first time they are put down. But every time you adjust
their position to align one piece with the one next to it (its nearly
impossible to slide such materials sideways) or have to completely lift the
piece off the substrate surface once it is down and then put it back down
for some reason, the adhesive bond (which isnıt super strong to begin with),
just gets weaker and weaker.
One of the biggest problems in museum or other public settings with murals
and anything adhered to a wall or other surfaces, is the fact that everybody
seems to be curious as to what the material adhered to the surfaces is and
how is it stuck down? Consequently, people pick at a corner of the material
to check it out. Then once that corner or edge is picked up, the curious
visitor may or may not try to re-adhere the materials. But whether they do
or not, the corner is likely to remain raised to some degree. That raised
corner invites more curiosity amongst visitors and pretty soon the adhered
pieces is a mess and coming off the wall.
We decided to stick with the tried-and-true method of having the imagery
printed on a commercial substrate such as wall vinyl or canvas/fabric
material and adhered to the wall and panel surfaces with standard vinyl wall
paper paste. We printed it so that the seams overlapped about 2² so that
they could be easily aligned and then double-cut, removing the scrape from
both layers and creating a clean flush tight almost invisible seam between
each panel of the image. The commercial wallpaper paste adheres well and can
easily be removed by standard removal means when you want to change it out.
Plus, I sure there are highly qualified paper hangers in your area area, if
your in-house staff doesnıt feel confident about doing the work themselves.
Commercial wallpaper hangers are typically fast, do good work, and arenıt
very expensive.
Should you need extra adhesion to protect outer edges from being picked or
ruffed up by people passing by or furniture or vacuum cleaners, etc. you can
run a bead of a stronger clear adhesive such as Elmerıs glue or for even
stronger adhesion, super glue, down the outside edges and across the muralıs
bottom edge.
One other thought, there is a company, Visual Magnetics, that makes a
re-stickable/removable vinyl mural material that is held in place by the
magnetism. Its based on first applying to the wall surface either a
self-adhesive substrate material called the InvisiLock Sheet Magnet or
painting the wall with a material called ActiveWall Magnetic-Receptive
Primer. This magnetic layer attached or painted on the wall is magnetic and
will attract and hold whichever MagnaMedia substrates that the imaginery is
printed on them. The MagnaMedia substrates are coated with a thin film that
has micro-iron particles embedded in it. It is those iron particles that are
attracted and held by the magnetic material on the wall surface. The
MagnaMedia substrates come in a variety of materials polyester media,
synthetic paper, vinyl chaulkboard, etc. and finishes matte & gloss and
can be printed like any other graphic substrate. The materials are high
quality and look great, but arenıt cheap. The magnetic adhesion also isnıt
super strong and could be easily removed by an overly curious or active
visitor. But it can just as easily be replaced/rehung. Its worth looking at
and being aware of, but probably isnıt the material for your application.
For additional help, we have worked for years with Photo Lab Inc. (PLI)
(www.photolabinc.com) on numerous museum projects and have always gotten
great council and excellent work from them. They know the museum and display
worlds extremely well. Talk to Dave Rahe there at 513-782-2147 direct or at
[log in to unmask], heıll definitely be able to help you.
SKIP
Ralph Skip Rhodes
Principal/Creative Director
RHODESWORKS LTD
www.rhodesworksltd.com
On 12/5/11 10:46 AM, "Robin Gabriel" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Has anyone had any experience with using vinyl, re-stickable murals in your
> exhibit spaces?
> (http://www.muralsyourway.com/wall-mural-installation/smartstick/)
>
> Iım interested to know how easy it is to install and how well the mural holds
> up in an exhibition setting. Iım looking into it for possible use in an
> education classroom setting.
>
> Are there any other companies who make wall-sized images of re-stickable
> materials, other than Murals Your Way? Has anyone used Murals Your Way for a
> custom mural?
>
> Thanks,
> Robin
>
> ------
> Robin Gabriel
> Director of Education and Interpretation
> Baltimore Museum of Industry
>
>
>
>
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