For 25 years I was a picture framer and now I spend my time creating art instead of framing it. I thought it would be fun for me to share what I learned in all those years, my hope is that I can take the fear out of walking into a picture framing shop, that I can clarify a few things and that I can impress on you how important it is to find that great picture framer.

Weather you are an artist or a collector you have probably had at least one thing framed. You may have been overwhelmed when you walked into a frame shop, you may have been shocked at the price and you may have thought they are trying to sell me something I don't need. I am here to tell you the most important thing you can do for your art is to find a good, honest, competent picture framer, and I am here to tell you they are out there. I am not going to lie, it can cost a lot of money. But think of it this way, you will frame something to hang on your wall, is it not just as important as the couch, the easy chair, the diningroom table, is it not as important in your home as the floor lamp, or the tv, we all have priority and that's ok, but a framed piece of art is as important as every piece of furniture you have. Another thing to think about is, how much did you spend on the pair of shoes you are wearing, or the handbag, what did you spend last weekend for that fine dinner and bottle of wine, what will last longer, that framed piece of art or the shoes you are wearing?

How do you find one you can trust. Start with your friends, neighbors, family, ask who they have used, are they happy with the work, did they feel the price was worth the craftsmanship? Ask them if they have gone back or will go back, if the answer is yes, go ahead and give them a try.

There are a lot of different aspects to framing and I will try and touch on some of them as time goes on. If you have a question that

Some of the subject I will be going over will be-
*Handling your art
*Glass, different types
*Mats, one of the most important aspects of framing
*Spacers
*The actual frame
*Framing or not framing works on canvas
*Shadow box
*Tips for hanging art
*Craftsmanship, as it relates to the mats and the frames
*Needle works
*Mounting and more.

Lets talk first about light. Its one of those things that is so necessary in order to view your art, ok go ahead roll your eyes, say DAH, I know, but would you believe it is one of the worsts enemies of art! Obviously you need to hang your art so you can see it, so what can we do to minimize the effects of light.

Well first of be sure to use the right glass, we will talk more about glass later, using a UV glass will help and I cant stress enough how important it is. The next thing to consider is the wall you are hanging your art on. Dose it get direct sunlight, dose the sun shine all day in that spot, if so you might want to consider hanging it elsewhere. Sunlight will fade you art faster than anything. UV glass will help slow the fading process but will not prevent the damage direct light can cause.

Its not just sunlight that can cause damage, lights in your home can do the same. Boy this sounds like maybe you should just stick that art in a closet and forget it, no, no, no just be aware of what can happen. Hang your art in a spot that you can view it and enjoy in but be sure the sun dose not shine on it all day. Most people are home in the evenings so place it in a spot that you will see and enjoy it at night. If you need to hang it across from that picture window close the curtains during the day.

Sometimes no matter what you just need to hang something in that sunny spot, well that's the place to hang a framed poster, one that can be replaced, not a one of a kind treasure. Art is meant to be enjoyed hang it where you will enjoy it the most, but do realize that harm can come to it, its up to you to weigh the good and the bad.

Most important enjoy your art!!!

Nothing to frame ,well lets solve that problem. Visit me at www.barkingdogstudio.com I paint horses, dogs, still life and more. I am just starting to add photography to my site, its not there yet but will be in the next few weeks.

Aside from the originals and prints I also do commissions.

You can also read about Rene the rescue horse I had and if you are really into horses you can join some like minded women at www.thebarngirls.com it's a new web site and interactive forum, we are small but will grow with time.

Come have a visit I would love to show off for you.

www.barkingdogstudio.biz

I will brake this up and talk about the different ways and items that will be mounted.
Dry Mounting
Conservation mounting.
Mounting of Needlework, shirts and such
Shadow box

Ok now lets talk about dry mounting

Why dry mount? Well basically to keep your art flat and wrinkle free. Dry mounting is used mostly for mounting posters or items that have little or no monetary value, newspaper clipping, menu, posters that can be replaced etc. Conservation mounting is for items that do have monetary value such as original works on paper, limited edition prints, fine art prints etc, we will talk about that later.

When dry mounting is used we are adhering your work to a backboard such as foamcore .If you looked at it from the side you would have your backboard on the bottom, next a sheet of adhesive then the poster, on top of that you would place a protective sheet that is removed when the process is done.. The items are placed in a press and heated until the adhesive is melted and permanent. When the item comes out of the press it is still warm and sometimes it needs to be put under weight until cooled. I have really simplified the process, if this was a how to I would go into more detail.

Dry mounting is permeant and non reversible. Ok someone is yelling at me that I am wrong, but for the most part I am right. You could take it to a conservatoire but why go there in the first place, remember we are only mounting pieces with little or no monetary value. There is a reversible tissue but I wont give it the time of day. If you need to reverse it you never should have mounted it in this way to begin with. Before you yell at me its just my opinion, just from my years of experience. Dry mounting is the use of heat and glue reversing it in a heat press could cause more damage than leaving it on the back board.

There are many different kinds of dry mounting tissues one for every job, you can talk to your framer more about that if it concerns you but basically they all work the same. .

Sometimes you have to weigh the pros and cons of mounting this way, I have a signed numbered limited edition print that I dry mounted. OMG so wrong on so many levels and I know better !!. But here is the deal, I loved the image, I wanted the image, It was perfect for my bathroom!!! A full bathroom with a shower will have steam and that will cause an unmounted piece to ripple and look horrible. I made the decision to mount it and not worry about the cost of the print or the fact that if it went up in value I would get nothing for it. By mounting it this way I basically turned this print into a poster. Don't be surprised if you insist on mounting something like this that the framer asked you to sign a wavier.

For a do it your self person there is a product called PMA position mounting adhesive. It comes on a roll and basically you roll out what you want place the image on it, use a protective sheet and a squeegee. You move the squeegee over the work pressing down hard getting all the bubbles out. After you have done that you remove the back paper, part of the adhesive roll, position the art on your back board , cover the work with the protective sheet and rub it down. This is awesome for small works, I loved it for photo's.

I will do my best to explain this without getting to technical and boring. This part of framing is so important and many people just don't bother with it because of either expense or they just don't understand.

When to use conservation mounting- any original work on paper, any signed number print, anything you want to last, anything you feel may be of monetary value in the future. Wow that covers a lot. I always say if in doubt use conservation methods and you wont be sorry.

I will talk about the two most common methods used. First one is a hinge made from either rice paper and glue or from tape. I know that's two nasty words but rest assure we are not using craft glue or scotch tape. The other method is the use of what is called "corners", sounds simple but really a good method and one that has become widely use.. Sometimes I incorporated both methods.

The tapes and rice paper are cut or torn to make a hinge, they are attached to the back of the work and the backboard. The art is then left to hang, and it is easy to reverse what you did, leaving no tell tale residue to the art. The advantage of the rice paper over the tape is that if there is a jarring action to the framed piece the rice paper will tear before the artwork, that's an easy repair.

I learned to love the corners, the art slips into a corner piece there is adhesive on the back that adheres to the back board. Since the corners are on all four corners of the art it gives it added support. Sometimes on heavy works I would hinge it at the top with rice paper and then place two corners on the bottom but not snug. If the work slipped it would just slightly fall down but still be supported.

Remember we talked about the advantage to dry mounting and how the work was flat and nice, well conservation methods allows the work to move, to change with the weather conditions. If your home is humid you will see more of that. No harm is coming to your work just grin and bear it. Done right you can remove the art any time and it will look like it did the day the artist finished it.

What you use to mount it on is just as important as how you mount it. There is a lot of confusion about this, the terms used make it difficult for even a framer to figure it all out. In recent years they came out with acid free foamcore and many framers used it to mount the art to. My opinion, I only used it to back the backboard!! Fomecore no mater what will have some out gassing and this can be harmful to your work. However for the average piece the use of it is ok if used right. What I always did was to mount the art on a 4 ply rag board, (more on that when we talk about mats) then backed that with the acid free foam. This kept the art further away from the foam. Your other alternative is to use many pieces of 4 ply and this can become very expensive and heavy. The reason for the additional boards is to help keep the piece from getting to wavy. We do need to be reasonable, we do need to consider cost and for me the use of both kinds of boards was a happy balance.

I have just touched on this subject, there is so much more to it but really very technical, talk to your framer about it, they are always working on new and better materials. There will always be room for improvement.

Done right conservation framing is reversible with no damage to your art.

Ok so now lets talk about needlework.

This is one of those art forms that for some reason people seem to neglect when it comes to framing them properly. I feel sometimes the person thinks, well I just did this for myself or my mother or or or so I don't have to worry about it. Wow you just spent hours creating that fine piece of needlework, take care of it so it will last !!

Back when I first started to frame we used to staple the canvas or cloth down to a board, we worried about getting it straight and would in some cases spend hours working on it. Conservation mounting of needlework consisted of using an acid free board between the work and the backboard and then using staples.

Well we have learned a thing or two since then. This is not to say the museums weren't doing it the right way then, I am sure they were, but it was unheard of for a regular framer to do this any other way. I remember if someone brought one in that had been taped in place we would be horrified, now if I see one that has stables I would feel that way.

Now we know the only way to mount needle work is to lace it. That is we would be sewing it to a backboard. Not sewing it down but lacing it, bringing the edges of the material to the back and running a thread back and forth both horizontally and vertically. Talk about time consuming !! The needle work gets backed with a 4 or 8 ply acid free board, sometimes using a specific color if the work was "open" this board was then attached to another 1/8" or 1/4" acid free backboard (thicker meant more stable)so you would end up with three layer.



If we were working on a piece that was already really old or valuable we would make our own backboard by stacking many rag boards together Not really necessary for most works but occasionally we did this.

The explanation of lacing is really so simple but don't let that fool you, it's a learned craft, very time consuming and should only be done by someone skilled in the art of lacing. Having said that, I recommend anyone who wants to save a little on the framing or perhaps frames themselfs anyway, to take a class and learn how to do this the right way.

What you will get out of a class is one of three things. One, you will love doing this as it is a hands on skilled task, if you can stitch you can lace. Two, you will understand what happens to a piece once this is done, you will see that no harm comes to your work and that it is indeed reversible. Three, you will so understand the amount of work involved in doing this that you may say no way and gladly pay a framer to perform this.

Ask the shop that you buy your supplies from if they teach this, if not ask your framer, many of them are happy to teach this as well.

If a framer dose not over a mounting option, ask them what they are going to do. In my shop I did not offer any options, I laced and that was that. But be sure that this is how it will be done, and not stabled, glued or taped, and please no drymount!!!!!

Happy Stitching