Framing Tips

Greetings. In this section of the web site I will give you brief and helpful "tips" to enable you to get the most for your framing dollar and to best exhibit and protect your artwork.

There is much to know about framing. First, a good framer needs to know his customer’s goals for the artwork, current trends, conservation, fundamentals of GOOD design, and he also needs to know his customer’s colors, décor, and lighting. After 15 years, over 10,000 framing projects, and countless trade shows and workshops, I've learned some useful fundamentals of framing and I am thrilled to share some tips with you. New tips will be added every month, so check back often.

If you have framing questions, please click here to send me an e-mail and I’ll either answer them in an e-mail reply or I’ll include them here to benefit others.

Tip #1 - Oversize Matting You can expand the horizons of smaller artwork by selecting a large mat to create greater impact. A variety of colors and textures can be used to perfectly frame your work!

Tip #2 - Selecting a Custom Framer If you've never had a picture framed, you could be in for an eye opening experience on your first visit. My first piece of advice to the first time framing customer--before you go into a custom picture framing studio, ask around to get recommendations. It should be fairly easy to get a recommendation from a friend or associate. Advice #2, unless you are framing an expensive original piece of art, expect to pay more for the framing than the picture. That's just the way it is. A lot of materials go into a custom framing project as well as expertise, time and craftsmanship. And # 3, expect your framer (especially on the first visit) to take a plenty of time and ask a barrage of questions. The frame designer should ask you things like size of the room, color of the walls, type of room (e.g. casual vs. formal), ceiling height, and what other artwork is in the room. If you want a piece of art to take on your personality and fit into your home, then we have to ask questions. How else will we know what to suggest? If a framer does not ask you questions, RUN.

Tip #3 - Choices in frames and matting As Henry Ford once said, "You can have any color you want as long as it’s black." That doesn’t fly at a frame shop in the new millennium. When you go to a custom framer, you should have plenty of choices in frames and in matting. Even though you won’t look at 1% of those frame and mat corners with your artwork, you should expect your framer to have the ability and willingness to show you any style you could possibly want. Granted, there are probably 15,000-20,000 different frames in the industry, but your framer should be committed to a moderate selection of say 800-1500 different frame samples and 1000-2000 mat samples. The samples are free to the framer and they help keep us informed on the latest styles. So next time you visit your framer, ask him or her when the last time was that they revised the frame wall.

Tip #4 - Matting colors I’ve tended toward framing for the ages (i.e. I didn’t use hunter green and burgundy on everything in the late 90’s and I didn’t use mauve and Williamsburg blue on everything in the early 90’s, and I won’t go further back than that!). A design element that works well in any age and is particularly prevalent now is to use very clean neutral double matting (hint: there’s a reason why there are more white mats than all others combined) and a WOW frame. The neutral (spelled W-H-I-T-E) mats allow the artwork to be prominently presented and separate from the frame. Then the frame can be really unique without distracting from your artwork. The result is a framing that will last longer than the next color craze. So next time you visit our framer, ask him or her what’s color in matting these days.

Tip #5 - Check-up time! Have you ever looked at a picture hanging on the wall and said, "That looks dingy." Time, temperature, humidity and light beat upon artwork and photographs relentlessly. Light, particularly ultraviolet light robs many artworks of their original color vitality (this will be the topic of another tip later). Changes in temperature and humidity over the years will cause non-archival mat boards to discolor and leach onto art and photos. It also causes pictures to imprint crud (sorry about the technical terminology) on the inside of the glass. I recommend that you have your pictures in for a check up after about 8-10 years on the wall. Your framer can open the frame, clean the glass (you would be amazed at how dirty the INSIDE of the glass gets), tell you if you have archival or non archival mat boards and backing and put it back together with fresh backing, paper dust cover and wire. Of course the cost depends upon the size of the picture and what changes you need (your framer is probably not like the mechanic who tells you you need a new fuel filter, tires, motor mounts and brakes when all you went in for was an oil change!!...but that’s another story). Look at it like housekeeping you only do once every 10 years. I promise.

Tip #6 - Glass-it's not just regular anymore

 Glass is glass, right? Wrong. All glass is not created equal. In order to preserve, protect and get the most out of your artwork, you have some choices to make. and with a little knowledge, those choices will be very easy. In the past, your choices in glass were simple--regular or nonglare. Then along came conservation glass and boy was it expensive. Now, in addition to the big 3 there's conservation nonglare,  AR reflection control, Museum, and Conservation Perfect Vue. For simplicity, I'll discuss some benefits of Conservation glass, particularly the UV protection. 

Every "first friday" of the month Nelson becomes the epicenter of downtown Johnson City's monthly art and music festival.  

Visit www.firstfridayjc.com for more information.