Museum gift shops can be a very costly places to visit, especially the poster-rich boutiques of the Art Institute of Chicago, New York`s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Washington`s Smithsonian. You generally pay only $10 to $20 up front to acquire truly exquisite reproductions and trendy posters, only to discover it will cost $75 to $100 to prepare your bargain-basement treasures to hang on the wall.
Framing anything of any size can be an expensive proposition, depending on the treatment you select. Moldings, mats and even the type of glass you choose all have a big impact on the final cost of your project. You can, however, reduce the price of framing significantly by getting actively involved in the mechanics of assembly and by considering low-end options. If you wish to go all the way, you can even construct your own frames.
Before examining the do-it-yourself alternatives, let`s establish a benchmark of quality by looking at the first-cabin approach of using a full-service framing store such as Good`s of Evanston, a fixture in that city since 1917. Located at 714 Main St., Good`s has evolved through incarnations as a paint and wallpaper store and as an unfinished furniture outlet. Today, the firm retails custom framing, framing supplies and artist supplies.
If you can`t find it at Good`s, chances are you won`t. Neal Graham, frame department manager for the last two years, says the store stocks about 2,000 different frame moldings. Prices start at $2 a foot for plain, pedestrian framing and run to about $120 per foot for massive hand-carved molding. Recently, Graham said he filled an order to frame a family portrait that cost more than $800.
The store also carries hundreds of photo frames in wood, plastic, glass and metal. It stocks a wide selection of ready-made frames, too, but more on that later.
Perhaps the most important advantage in going with custom framing, beyond the expansive range of materials available, is that you will be advised by a person proficient in the science of selecting just the right elements to compliment your artwork. ”Only a small percentage of our clientele really knows what they want when they come into the store,” says Graham. ”We have a complete knowledge of what is here and what different materials look like together.”
Store manager Paul Grecian, an 11-year veteran at Good`s, demonstrated that point clearly on a recent Saturday when assisting a customer with framing a piece of needlework. The client selected several paper mats and a painted frame to pull out the dominant colors in the needlework. To Grecian`s mind, this was all wrong. Instead, he suggested a fabric-covered liner and a new
”designer” frame of a delicate flower wallpaper print fused into the surface of a wide and softly curved molding. The effect was subtle, tasteful and infinitely more elegant.
The customer bought the look in an instant.
Grecian wasn`t surprised, and he smiled with the self-assurance of one who knows when he is right. ”Never,” he says confidently, ”mat a fabric piece with paper. And I`m recommending that you do not use glass.” Later he explains that he generally goes along with customers who seem to know what they want before offering his own suggestions. But then they usually end up purchasing his combination of frame and matting material.
Graham says he often encounters customers who want to match their framing purchase to the decorative elements already present in the room where the artwork will end up. They bring in carpeting and fabric samples and hold them up to frames.
”The frame should enhance the piece, not the setting in which it will hang,” says Graham. At the same time, he must strike a balance himself in designing the frame. ”You`ve got to be careful not to overdo a piece,” he warns. ”The frame has to make the strong elements of the piece stand out-the frame itself shouldn`t be the most important part.”
Framing and matting are only part of the story. Good`s offers a comprehensive list of services, including dry-mounting prints, blocking needlepoint pieces, stretching fabric and building shadow boxes. To protect the work, it can be covered with regular picture glass or with nonglare glass, a material that has fallen out of favor with some framers because they believe it tends to distort images when mats are employed. Graham says it is not transparent and it tends to mute colors and blue images-all for twice the price of regular picture glass.
Plexiglas is becoming more popular in the framing industry. It is frequently used with large posters (because it is lightweight) and with pieces intended for children`s rooms (because it is shatterproof). Be aware, however, that Plexiglas scratches easily and yellows with time.
For especially sensitive or fragile pieces to be framed, Good`s will specify museum standard materials in their work. The acid-free rag boards and backing used will not hasten the deterioration of original artwork. UF-3 Acrylic glazing can also be used for archive-quality work to filter out damaging effects of ultraviolet rays. This stuff is expensive, about four times the cost of regular glass.
Graham says having a company like Vogue Fabrics right down the street is a major asset in framing. Clients can select any fabric there, and Good`s will stretch it over moldings or mats to create striking liners. Especially interesting ”semi-embossed” mats are created by covering two offset mats with fabric (using spray adhesive and a vacuum press) and then hand-burnishing the joint. Artwork can then be ”floated” on the mat.
Unusual supplies are also gleaned from the artist`s supply side of the store. Pin striping materials have been used to decorate mats as have hand-painted and marbleized papers.
Once a customer selects all of the materials, it takes one or two weeks, depending on complexity of the project, for ”fitting,” the process of putting all of the pieces together. You can save money by assembling projects yourself-how much depends on the project.
If there is no stretching or blocking involved, fitting is a simple task. Just lay the frame face down on a flat surface and insert the glass. Spray the glass with cleaner and wipe clean. Framers often recommend that you use newspaper to wipe the glass because it will not leave lint behind, as will cloth or paper towels.
Next, if you are using a mat, center the art in the opening and tack the pieces together on the reverse side with masking tape. Place in the frame and insert a piece of cardboard, foam core or acid-free board to serve as a backing. To hold everything firmly in place, insert glazier`s pushpins 3 or 4 inches apart all the way around the frame. The pins can easily be driven into the wood with a screw driver; or if you have the tool, you can shoot triangular glazier`s points instead.
To keep out dust and dirt, seal the back of the whole package with a piece of Kraft paper. Cut a piece slightly larger than the dimensions of the frame and set it aside. Then run a narrow bead of white glue around the frame and set in the paper and smooth out all wrinkles. Using a straightedge, trim the excess paper with a single-edge razor blade. Use a damp sponge and remove any excess glue, and then lightly wipe the entire paper surface. When the paper dries it will stretch nice and tight.
Finally, attach a picture hanger (I prefer screw eyes and wire) and self- adhesive felt bumpers near the corners to help protect the wall. Flip the piece over and clean the front of the glass.
This is not brain surgery, but work carefully, be cautious with the glass and you will do just fine.
Good`s takes the do-it-yourself aspect one step farther by stocking an entire room with ready-made frames (using moldings from the custom side of the shop) and ready-to-assemble metal frame kits. There is also a nice selection of precut mats from which to choose, but if you can wait 10 minutes, they will custom cut for you as well. Pick out your materials, take them home and finish your project all in one day.
The ultimate do-it-yourself framing effort, however, is offered at the Great Frame Up, a hands-on workshop where you not only handle the fitting, you construct the frame as well. Don`t be skeptical now, because when you have the right tools, anything is possible. And the Great Frame Up provides everything you need, from moldings to glue to nails.
I visited the store at 1300 Rand Rd. in Arlington Heights, one of 22 franchise operations in the Chicago area. Bob Jolliffe, the store manager and 14-year employee, was my tutor for the afternoon.
Here`s the deal: If you build the frame and assemble all the pieces yourself, Jolliffe says, you can save 30 to 50 percent of the cost of custom framing. To start the process, you sign in at the pricing station when you enter the store. Then take whatever it is you wish to frame and position it on the large magnetic display board for viewing. This board runs from the floor to about 4 feet high, and it is about 12 feet long. Directly above the viewing board hang L-shaped sample pieces of the moldings and mats sold in the store. Although I did not count them, I estimate 100 frames were on display at the Arlington Heights store. Right now, Jolliffe says, the hot sellers are laminated frames, pickled oak frames and painted frames in pastel colors. Prices range from about $2.50 to $10 per foot.
The viewing board is a great idea. As the magnets hold up your artwork and mat, you can take down an L-shaped piece of molding and rest it on the magnet over the artwork. Then you can stand back and get a good idea of how your finished piece will look.
Pricing guides are on display so you can estimate what your purchase will run before you buy. When you decide, an attendant will write up your order. After you pay for your purchase, the order goes to the back room, where your mat and moldings are cut to size.
While your materials are being prepared, you are ushered to one of the 12 work stations in the store, all of which were busy the day I visited. Nice young people called ”table workers” give you instructions on how to actually build your frame and install the goodies.
The heart of the work station is a miter vise, a special device that holds the molding piece to enable even the complete novice to make perfect corner joints. The vise tilts and swivels to make it easy to drive nails at the moment of truth.
Each position is equipped with a tool box containing the basics-a hammer, a very simple hand drill, nail sets, razor blades and a special tool that shoots glazier`s points. You`ll also find glass cleaner, newspaper for cleaning glass, tissues, five types of nails, several types of tape, and picture hangers and self-adhesive bumpers. All this is supplied for a daily shop charge of $2.
When your stuff comes, here`s all you have to do:
1. Insert a short side and a long side of your frame molding into the miter guides and loosely tighten one piece. The moldings are cut on a 45-degree angle, and the object is to match them up to provide an even, perfect joint. This is achieved by moving the pieces a little at a time until you match the sides.
When you`ve got it right, tighten one side down so it will not move and remove the other side from the vice. Now apply a little glue and return the side and tighten down again.
2. Next, loosen the miter vice and swivel the entire piece so that you now look down at the side of the molding. The whole thing just flips on a big ball joint.
3. Now take the mechanical hand drill and make two pilot holes on one side of the joint, and one hole on the other. Tap in nails to hold the joint securely.
4. Using a nail set, tap in the nails so the heads are recessed slightly below the surface of the molding. Later, you will fill the holes with matching putty to produce a finished look.
5. Remove the corner from the vise and you will find it is very sturdy. Continue with the same process with each corner until the frame is completed. Then proceed with the fitting methods described earlier.
Jolliffe says his store provides a wide array of special services, such as stretching fabric and cutting specialty mats. If you prefer to let someone else do the work, the store will custom frame your piece. Forget about instant gratification, however. Custom work takes one to three weeks, depending on the project.
