There’s many a way you can go about framing your prints, but there’s also ‘rules of thumb’ used in the framing industry that every artist would do well to know.
Here’s three of them that are each a sure-fire way to get you thinking more about how you frame your prints. Or help you decide if you should consider selling framed prints or unframed.
You may have noticed in the glossy home magazines that they have all the photos neatly displayed, evenly spaced, and angled perfectly. Yet, you’d likely think it’s been pieced together by a pro interior designer.
Do you want to know a simple approach you can use to get a perfect display every time?
You would be forgiven for thinking that anyone can surely know how to hang a picture frame. Knock some nails into the wall, attach the brackets and voila, job done.
Quirky designs on unique poster prints are one thing… framing them though, that’s an entirely different ball game.
Poster prints by independent artists are big business. Printing them is where problems occur for you – the buyer - because the prints are mass produced, which means they’re printed on a commercial printer.
There are plenty of tips around for taking black and white photo’s but for framing the ones you adore - that’s when it fast becomes a tedious nightmare, like trying to solve the impossible.
Impossible it will feel like because ready-made picture frames are rarely manufactured to highlight the high contrast of black and white photographs.
Art storage is a delicate operation. For pieces with market value, you need to store them in a way that retains that value. The instant it’s lost, it’s technically no longer art, or at least on paper in terms of insurance. It’ll still be art, but far from a collectible piece of art.
To prevent your art from becoming technically not art, with no market value, you need to know how to store it in a way that gives maximum protection – inside and outside the frame.
Although the word 'acrylic' 'perspex' or 'plastic glazing' may sound like you are getting cheap materials, acrylic actually costs nearly 3 times the price of standard float glass per square metre and offers higher light transmission properties & better UV protection when compared with standard float glass.
Creating collages can be awesome. It’s a creative experience, and one filled with excitement once you’ve uploaded your file to the printers to have them print it, and send it to you. Maybe even frame it.
A lot of hard work and studying goes into earning certificates, years of studying, late nights and sacrifices. When it’s all done, it’d be a shame to tuck any certificate into a drawer where it can’t be seen as a reminder of all that hard work that finally paid off.
Ask yourself this about any certificate you’d like to see in a frame…
Picture rails can be superb timesavers when hanging frames. Over the years though, the rails have become more decorative in home décor rather than used for their actual purpose – hanging frames from them. You can even hang mirrors from them, too. If you’ve got an older home with a picture rail already there, you may as well be using it.
