|
 Why Should I Consider Custom Framing?
I can buy a ready-made frame at the local art mart…Why, then, should I pay over and above for custom picture frame? That’s a great question, and certainly, there are times when a precut mat and a pre-produced frame might get you by. Yet when it comes down to preparing something special for display – an heirloom, a work of fine art, or a photograph of a particularly beloved memory – custom framing is often times the best and only answer. A well-executed custom framing design incorporates the convergence of art, carefully selected mats, molding, and other enhancements in order to generate a unique presentation that reflects your own uniqueness and brings to life your home or office in the process. A unique custom framing design will never find itself repeated again in another home, in a department store, in a discount store, or in a furniture store. Your photography, your acquisition of fine art, your historical artifacts, and the certificates you’ve worked hard to earn are best framed in a manner that is reflective of their intrinsic importance and ultimately serves to prevent their exposure to the elements while preventing any deterioration over the course of time. Custom framed artwork represents a heightened presentation of your home’s décor, which will subsequently endure far past the lifespan of many of your home’s supplemental accessories. Custom framed work is personal…In many cases, more so than most of your other home furnishings. Our customer design team will help you to identify design techniques that will underscore the presentation of the artwork itself, as the framing alone often becomes its own work of art. Many design methods exist that can be leveraged in order to make your artwork uniquely your own. Let’s look at some of these approaches now:
Combinations of Mats
Mats must be chosen with both an aesthetic function and a purposeful function in mind. A mat provides physical space in which photography and art is protected from contacting directly with the glass. Why is this necessary? Particularly within interior climates featuring higher humidity, it is essential to prevent the art from coming into direct contact with any potential condensation, as doing so may cause the art to adhere to the glass at the risk of permanent damage. As it relates to photography specifically, if a photograph is framed in a manner that allows for direct contact with the overlaying glass, the silver oxide emulsion of the photography will contact with and adhere to the glass, which may potentially cause irreversible damage to the photograph. The spacing that is facilitated by the presence of the mat exists to prevent this, while simultaneously providing rigidity that serves to structurally support the artwork.
From a standpoint of pure aesthetics alone, mats can empower a wide array of design enhancements that serve to illuminate your artwork. A singular mat can supplement the art with additional width, depth, and color enhancement. Multiple mats can eliminate any sense of flatness the collective piece might have, thereby giving your framed artwork a truly dimensional appearance. Far from serving as a distraction, this incorporation of mats can enhance the sense of poignancy and depth that the artist originally intended to infuse into the piece. In order to allow for the artwork to stand out, your artwork needs to be given its proper space. Only then may it exist without any distraction presented by the surrounding walls and treatments on the surface area of walls. Mats exist to create this space, which in turn empowers your art to be viewed and taken in without distraction. Mat presentations are endless, as mat boards now exist in literally thousands of textures, colors, and unique displays. The selection of particular mat colors can be used to facilitate a wide array of aesthetic benefits. Carefully selected mat arrangements can frequently enhance the work of art, while simultaneously enabling a pleasing transition into the general décor of the room in which it is displayed. Additional texture can be brought to the arrangement in the form of fabric mats. Mats that have been overlapped in linen or silk can serve the purpose of achieving a sense of elegance in areas that feature a more formal décor. It is not infrequent to find some customers changing their mats within a framed piece upon changing the overall décor of their home or office. It must also be noted that a true conversation discussing general matting options would be incomplete without simultaneously discussing the quality of options. Only in the last thirty years has framing evolved beyond two basic options for matting…The first was lower quality, acidic paper mats – still referred to as “paper mats” within the industry today – or 100% rag mats. In that recent past, rag mats were only available in white. This explains why we were accustomed to only seeing museum or gallery artwork framed in white mats. Nowadays, there are three primary options. We still have paper mats and we still have rag mats…Yet now, rag mats are available in the spectrum of a full color palette. A third option is now represented in the form of archival mats. These mats incorporate a blend of both paper and rag, yet they have been specially treated in order to remove the vast majority of potentially detrimental impurities, inclusive of acid. These mats are absolutely suitable for displaying all incarnations of artwork, and they are offered in a tremendous variety of textures and colors. Paper mats by themselves have at times proven to be damaging to art, which is the primary reason we don’t recommend them (we certainly don’t sell them). In the work we perform on your behalf, we almost exclusively utilize fully archival mats…There are also occasions in which rag mats are also used when deemed appropriate. You can easily determine whether a particular piece of art is framed with archival mats or paper mats by closely examining the bevel cut made in creating a particular mat opening. An archival mat will always identify itself by being a pure white, and without any perceptible layering. A paper mat will be represented in off-white. In the case of paper mats, you will on occasion be able to see the layers through which the mat has been built up by lamination.
Multiple Mat Openings
There are certain occasions in which it may be deemed appropriate to mount multiple pictures within the context of a singular frame. Examples of such instances may include dimensional articles (graduation cap, diploma), family photographs presented in collage format, wedding remembrances (invitations, photographs), or an array of vacation photos. When properly sequenced, photographic collages can recite an entire family history, or recount a specific moment or story. Mats with multiple openings create a situation in which you can display a variety of smaller pictures in a singular frame as opposed to many small frames. At the same time, this can save you both money and space.
Unique Designs and Treatments
Your custom framing job can be fully realized through the incorporation of special treatments that may be applied to the design. Included in these are etched glass, embossed mats, inlayed mats, French mats, carved mats, and V-grooved mats. The use of such techniques can result in a truly unique final product, but their attributes must be utilized selectively and carefully to fully ensure that they complement your artwork rather than causing distraction. With one or two of these design elements applied in creative tandem, the art can truly be realized through such enhancements.
Selecting the Right Frame
In addition to providing aesthetic enhancement of the art itself, the chosen frame serves to provide structural integrity to the composite piece. Enough structural integrity to then enable you to cover your art with glass or acrylic and hang it on the wall of your home or office. Yet it is the style, the texture, and the color of the molding that will supplement the presentation of your custom-framed art. We literally have hundreds and hundreds of moldings that we will make available to you. But your eventual choice should inevitably present itself well with the art itself, your chosen mats, and the general, overall effect you are desiring to present. As a case in point, bamboo moldings often appear as a logical choice for work originating from the orient. Moldings derived from natural woods are often used to draw associations with similar wood furnishings while providing an understated elegance to the art. Moldings in general can be utilized in creative combination to provide supplemental color and width to your custom-framed artwork. The conceivable possibilities are truly vast, yet in the face of so much choice, we can help you to select the ideal combination for your artwork. After the selection process has run its course, the frame must then be measured, cut and assembled precisely in order to ensure tight, matched corners and complete structural integrity. Frames that possess exaggerated, deeply etched or embossed designs can’t always be cut and matched to ensure that the patterns will intersect perfectly at the corners. This holds true due to the fact that no industry-wide mathematical correlation exists between the spacing of design and standardized framing dimensions…Not to mention the infinite sizes available in any custom framing project. In such cases, it is often determined to be necessary to fill any gaps in the patterns at the seams that exist in the corners, while simultaneously blending the colors so the mismatch is not at all conspicuous.
Display Cases and Shadow Boxes
Dimensional objects in need of proper framing do not represent an overwhelming challenge to our experienced staff of custom framers. Whether it’s a medal awarded for service to country or an intricate doll presented to a daughter, there is a creative approach to framing anything and everything. A display case or shadow box can be very bare bones, or it can utilize exquisite woods and fabric for a richly elegant presentation. Baby shoes, musical instruments, coin collections, antique pistols, and service medals represent some examples of items that can be displayed in shadow boxes. Physically larger items – such as a guitar or an autographed football – require display cases. By working with one of our design consultants, you can best determine the ideal to fully protect and enhance your art through creative display.
Framing of Tapestry and/or Needlework
When we discuss the framing of needlework, we’re discussing the framing of all needlework, cross-stitch, crewel, and embroidery. Tapestries can possibly include woven rugs, batiks, and quilts. Because these closely held objects represent an extremely substantial investment of both time and talent, it is essential that they be subsequently presented in an aesthetically pleasing way that also protects it from the elements and from the rigors of time. Countless approaches exist when it comes to displaying these items.
Framing Mirrors
Framing isn’t relegated to artwork alone. Mirrors expand the perception of a room’s size, and we can build a framed mirror to perfectly accentuate your interior décor. Much like any other form of glass, a mirror can be cut and can be framed to negotiate any particular space, right down to the quarter inch. Stores such as furniture stores or department stores may be limited to a finite selection of mirrors in certain styles or sizes, yet we have a full stock of 750+ moldings from which you choose the ideal look.
What exactly is “conservation glass”? Why would I need it?
Let’s first approach the subject of why conservation glass fulfills a wide array of specific needs. It should first be established that some artificial light and all sunlight contains an electromagnetic element referred to as ultraviolet (UV) light. UV light waves are far shorter than light that is visible to the human eye, and they contain substantially more energy…It’s this energy that causes the human body to experience sunburn after prolonged exposure. This tangibly higher energy then generates a greater amount of heat and can escalate the rate of deterioration experienced by the molecular structure of the surfaces and pigments utilized in the printing process. Whenever you are framing artwork that’s meant to last – not limited to one-of-a-kind artwork, nostalgic artwork, intrinsically or explicitly valuable artwork, or limited edition artwork, conservation glass is the essential choice. Conservation glass, simply put, is clear glass – usually and preferably float glass – to which an inhibiting film has been applied to repel UV penetration. It serves its functional purpose, as conservation glass successfully blocks roughly 97 percent of incoming ultraviolet rays, as opposed to the 50 percent of ultraviolet rays successfully blocked by non-glare and regular glass.
What should I utilize to clean the glass on my picture frame?
When it comes time to cleaning the glass on your picture frame, most commercial window cleaners are acceptable choices. Do your best to avoid generalized, all-purpose disinfectants, cleaners, or any specific cleaner that utilizes waxes, detergents, or an abrasive agent (such as pumice). In the event your frame was constructed while utilizing conservation glass, you should attempt to circumvent the use of any substances containing ammonia (it’s important to note that ammonia is commonly found in some commercial glass cleaners, so watch out). Windows cleaners containing vinegar-D or vinegar itself are extremely effective, and substantial testing has indicated that they are in fact safe choices for use on any glass. In addition, there are some newer types of coatings for glass that are emerging within the framing industry. Glass with such coatings may require specialized care and attention. In framing work in which we work with you to decide upon utilizing glass with such coatings, we will at that time provide you with specific terms of care for these unique situations. Regardless of the cleaning substance you choose to employ, you should always take care to spray the cleaner directly on the cloth first before then wiping the glass. If you were to spray the cleaner directly on the glass, any residual liquid may possibly trickle down between the glass and the frame itself, and could serve to adhere the framing elements to the delicate work of art.
A list of things to consider before framing anything
1. Why custom frame, and what to frame
Custom framing reflects your own unique taste and personality. So whether you’re framing baby shoes, a personal photograph, or a work of fine art, custom framing mirrors your perspective and will simultaneously serve to protect your artwork in the years ahead.
2. Take account of the surrounding environment
By all means, take into account the room’s surrounding décor. Yet keep in mind that you shouldn't necessarily strive to match the custom framing work to the room itself at the absolute expense of what framing work looks aesthetically good while working in tandem with the artwork alone. You may also want to keep in mind the possibility that the decor of the room – or the room itself – may change either subtly or drastically over the years to come.
3. Select mats to enhance your artwork
When we refer to “matting,” we’re referring to the material placed around an image within a frame, featuring a “window-cut” in its center through which the artwork is viewed. Matting can be created from a vast array of materials (examples are cotton, fabric, and paper) and in a wide range of colors. Mats serve the additional function of providing a physical spacer between the glass and the artwork. This is important, because artwork can expand in the context of changes in both temperature and humidity, and the glass must never be allowed to contact directly with the art itself. There is a high aesthetic value to be placed on matting as well, as matting increases the composite size of the finished piece and provides a sense of focus by providing space for the eyes to create separation between the art and the frame.
4. Preventive maintenance
On countless occasions, intrinsically valuable art has incurred damage far before arriving at our store for custom framing work. This usually represents improper storage or transportation somewhere along the timeline of the artwork’s existence. If a piece of art is traditionally rolled up for storage or transport (ex: posters) substantial damage can be incurred through the use of poster rollers, rubber banding, masking tape…Even just in unrolling a poster to look at it for a first time! Take great pains to ensure that the artwork is placed within a protective folder or tube. To head off potential damage at the pass, feel free to consider having us remove the artwork from its original packaging as part of the custom framing process.
5. The devil is in the details
Beyond a simple mat and frame, consider supplementing your artwork by adding another small detail to the mix. For example, beveled mat treatments, creatively designed window openings, and specialty fabric or paper mats can bring a distinctive design element to the artwork as a whole. We regularly work with these various options, and can provide you with some guidance in helping you to determine what will work most effectively with your artwork. At times, even the smallest element utilized in framing your art is the element that makes it stand out the most.
6. The best frame is the one that enhances your art
Thousands of different frame styles and sizes exist. And they all come in a variety of glazes, stains, and overall finishes. Use us to help you identify the frame that best enhances your artwork, and we’ll build it to exceed you expectations.
7. Select only archival materials to protect your art
Common framing materials – such as cardboard and paper mats – can contain acid that will gradually impact and eventually destroy your treasured art. Rest assured that these materials are never utilized by our framing team. Utilizing backing boards and archival mats will aid you in protecting your art from the residual impact of time, and from standardized pollutants and environmental factors that can cause fading, yellowing, and overall deterioration.
8. Properly mount your artwork
Wet and dry mounting processes adhere the artwork to a board in order to keep the artwork from waving or bubbling (these techniques are the most effective in mounting both photographs and posters). Art of discernable value is usually not wet or dry mounted, as these processes can’t be reversed and can have an adverse impact on any potential resale value. The process of hinging – also commonly known as museum mounting – uses paper hinges to physically attach the art with to the board. The artwork then hangs freely and without obstruction, thereby allowing it to contract or expand when impacted by changes in humidity. The process of hinging is the recommended approach for framing original artwork, frail photographs, and other items that may be deemed irreplaceable.
9. Protect your artwork with glazing
The term “glazing” is a reference to the acrylic or glass covering the artwork as source of protection. Multiple glazing variations exist, including anti-reflective glass (chemically coated), non-glare glass (acid etched), conservation glass (specifically formulated to block ultraviolet light), and regular clear glass. Acrylic glazing products also exist in both non-glare and UV filtering variables. A benefit of acrylic is the fact that it is lighter in weight and is therefore safer to utilize than is glass. However, keep in mind that acrylic will require a non-abrasive cleaner and a soft cloth. Acrylic is particularly ideal for oversized pieces – in fact, it is often your only choice as a result of its lighter weight – and is often the ideal choice for frames in need of shipping or frames that eventually are displayed in children's rooms.
10. The right framer is as important as the right frame
Framers are everywhere. Good ones are arguably harder to find. Keep in mind that beyond a sheer volume of framing options to choose from, a good framer will serve a critical role in assisting you to make all the vital decisions that are made throughout the custom framing process. Quite simply, a good framer will have a positive and dramatic impact on your satisfaction with the end result. Quality-conscious framing establishments achieve a high standing through years of hands-on familiarity with design and preservation framing, all while enlisting the use of a wide variety of methods and materials
|
