Featured The cost of framing

I was responding to Brad.......

 

Actually, it is Hobby Lobby.

 

yup...the one on the right is bang on......
the eye folows the hue change from dark to mid to light...and focuses right towards the centre..

 

Very nice! I always love a dark mat on a monochrome print. I think it makes the lineart pop and looks like a window. I love a good black core too, especially with a cream paper. The husband likes lighter mats but he mostly frames for galleries so there's very little variation from white on white on white...

 

I rarely buy Art anymore, an' the cost of the most fundamental work in my (local & excellent) frame shop is one of the reasons for that near-cessation.
Of course materials an' skilled labor are more costly...as is, it seems, most everything else. My method was to have the piece mounted with clear corner-clips to 1/4" foam-board, with a shrink covering...simple, flat protection for handling an' storage. The last two, about 14 X 20 inches each, was almost $80...ouch!
So, after years of accumulating these flat items, I offer several on eBay...an' must remove them from their foam-board to ship in a tube, rolled. The economics are questionable, to say the least! It does tend to keep me outta the pool halls, though.

 

For foamcore and shrinkwrap with photo corners?? What on earth.

 

I guess I'm alone in thinking it, but those extruded aluminum DYI frames from the '70s and '80s seemed like a good idea to me: inexpensive and you could select individual pieces to make any custom size. Easy to assemble and looked good. Always seemed appropriate for prints and posters.

 

Way back when in the 70s, they had this concept of taking your poster art to a Frame it Yourself shop. The shop cut your frame, your matting, and the glass and you put it all together using their tools and advice. It was at fairly reasonable cost. Then that died out and I started taking all my framing to Michael's. $200 - $300 each was standard for what I had framed (mostly late 80s and 90s). So now I look for framed artwork at estate sales hoping I can find someone who shares my taste in decorating. Yet I've noticed that good framed artwork at estate sales has gone way up too.

I just remembered, one chain of those stores was the The Frame Station.

 

I bought a Logan Mat Cutter abt 30 yrs ago.It works well if you know what yr doing & be methodical.I also have a miter saw & a glass cutter.
Framing was insane in the 80's & like everything else just keeps goin' up.
Here's a simplified breakdown of selling a piece of art-Gallery takes 30-60%/Framing-10-20% + some miscellaneous costs,these are rough estimates.
So you can see,an artist has to be resourceful to even begin to make a living wage.

 

I've been considering just that, for a few keepers.

 

I haven't got the ability to do my own framing so when I sell a painting, I make very little money. I could always sell my work matted, but that implies unfinished work and I still won't get what it's worth. Because I work with colored pencil, it has to be behind glass. Most artists really don't make a lot of money

 

I bought a matt cutter centuries ago. Won't claim to be any great shakes, but then I'm nothing much at creating wall art either. Good enough for my own needs, but wouldn't want to sell any of it. People complain about the prices on wall art at the local thrift, until I tell them getting something framed would be 10x what the store wants for the whole thing.

 

I've used those to keep my cost down.....and where they fit the work being framed.... but the acid free mat.....that's the kicker to long term viability !!!

 

These still exist. Called "sectional frames" they're at Michaels or Blick. They are whole inch sizes though. Metal frames are also the cheaper option in custom framing.

Logan isn't too expensive if you frame a lot, and I've even seen a couple show up at the thrift. You can also get away with an xacto or other sharp blade if you don't mind it being a straight cut without a bevel.

 

None of us has touched on something I am guilty of,and that is buying an ugly picture because the frame looks good ! Ive got 2 in my spare room I bought just for that reason. That being said,I have the worst luck in buying off sized art ! God forbid it should be 8x10 ! Oh no,its 9 by 11 1/2 !

 

I've freehand cut many beveled edge mats. It's not so difficult.

 

Bev- From what I can see in the pic your talent w/ colored pencils is superb.Is that Prismacolor,Caran dAche,something else ?

 

Half-round and round frames have always been expensive, because they're expensive to make. (Unfortunately, says this fan collector.)

I also use an online frame shop, they sell acid free mats etc. as well. I'm very happy with the quality and range of sizes, products, etc, and they also do custom made.

You're not the only one.

 

When my mother sold antiques ,she found wonderful color prints in magazines of cars from the 20's and 30's. Tailor books had fantastic pages of 1920's fashions for both men and women not to mention all of the cream of wheat ads. She had tons of them framed using old frames as well as new. Same problem as mention by komokwa. They didn't sell because the frame was not quite right for their decor I have stacks of these pictures. I sell a few here and there at my garage sales but I am pretty sure i am barely recouping her cost of the framing. I do keep some since I do my own art work and I may nee the mat or the frame. Before shipping got high, I sold some on Ebay encased in egg cartons. But i don't even try any more. The packages we get are so beat up these days , I can't imagine a framed pic making it.

 

I don't ship framed art usually because unless it's small and without glass, it is a huge pain. But if I regularly sold such things, I would be using UV plexi instead of glass for sure.