The Quiet Man is Now Framed

And Ed's Art Frameshop cranks out another one. Read about this ink drawing below a few posts back. Now it is framed. The matting and frame definitely add dimension, depth, and a great overall enhancement to the piece. That is what good framing is - adding to, but not overwhelming the art. Some interior designers or aggressive frame salesmen might push four mats 5 inches wide with a fillet and some ridiculous frame that matches the wallpaper not the art, etc. This is bad. Don't do this. Good framing doesn't have to be over-simple, but it shouldn't be ridiculous either. Always frame to the piece of art itself and don't worry about anything else.

The Quiet Man by Ed Tajchman. Ink Drawing. Framing by Ed Tajchman

Framed Painting by Ed Tajchman - Freeform Six

I have been on a bit of a roll now starting to frame some of my smaller more recent watercolors; many of the works that I have been featuring on this blog. (See http://edsartworkshop.com) for 22 examples of my latest works.)

This one is called Almost Formless 6. You can't tell in the photo but the frame does have a bit of a curve on it. It features cotton rag mats, which means they are 100% cotton all the way through, and the same color all the way through. This means they are archivally superior to what people usually call acid-free mats (where the color is just one thin top layer of the mat-board).

Stay tuned for more updates on my framed artwork. These will be for sale, I am currently searching for a gallery to exhibit them at. Contact me for details.

Almost Formless 6, watercolor and Ink. Painting and framing both by Ed Tajchman.

Framed Watercolor Painting: "Flower Goddess" by Ed Tajchman

If you've been following along you read a few posts ago where I wrote about turning my basement into a frameshop. Although I don't have any large equipment yet, I was able to put this together. The painting is mine and called Flower Goddess. It is about 11 x 15" with 3 inches of matting around it. The colors and frame design really compliment the painting if I do say so myself. 

Flower Goddess, watercolor and ink by Ed Tajchman. Framing also by Ed Tajchman. ©

Transforming My Basement from Mess to an Artist's Workshop

I have recently been organizing the basement in my wife and I's house. (We've been here three years already but writing about our basement, our house, just now; really felt good.) It took me way too long but I have finally been digging out boxes of frames I snatched and snaggle-grabbed in my years of working as a professional custom picture framer for other people/companies.

I have to kick myself for not being more motivated to do this sooner. I am trying to create a basement framing shop to frame not only my own work, but work for other people as well. Going through the frames has been a great experience, reminding me of the better moments of my framing career.

When I started in the framing biz I worked for one of those craft stores (which shall remain nameless, there is no love lost there). I still sometimes have nightmares of being on the sales counter for hours at a time with a line 10 people deep. Half of them demanding I help them because no one else knows what they are doing and the other half demanding to look at 5 shades of white even though I've told them the best combination an hour ago.

Just some of the frames procured in my framing career. My favorite one is in front, a Spanish style frame with taupe undertones in the middle and blue-grey tones at the top and bottom with copper and gold highlights in the design. Never seen a frame like it and I have framed over 20,000 pictures. Soon my art will finally be framed in these frames saved for years.

The better moments of being a framer are when you get to meet and work with all kinds of different artists and creative people, and being able to see art every single day in different ways. (And when you get first selection of the best of what we call oops frames.) Oops Frames are ones that for whatever reason, were not used by the customer, or had been made in slightly the wrong size etc.

The best moments of being a framer was when I lived in Pittsburgh, PA and framed for the guy who owned FrameDesigns. (Shoutout to Rees if you ever read this!) He had bought the shop from a lady who had owned it for 25 years or something before selling it to him. He had quite the back-stock of frames that were no longer made and that we didn't even sell. He was nice enough to once in a while let me put together a frame from some of that old, odd back-stock.

Those were great days working at that shop. It is so much more satisfying working for a small business owner then for a large company. We would listen to the Grateful Dead and just frame, frame, frame all day long. That is why I hope to have my own little shop out of the house soon. I always felt lucky to be an artist and a framer and I know that those combination of skills can do me well in the future.

Speaking of cleaning out the basement I also have been digging through a group of my large paintings on canvas from about 2005 - 2007. About 20 large paintings (40 - 60" or more) in total. None of them are stretched (because they are very big). This was a time when I was just buying rolls of canvas, hacking them up into huge chunks, taping them to the wall and painting/living with them. It's very chaotic work compared to what I do now, but they are none the less, interesting. All the work plays a critical role in understanding the whole story. I hope to preview some of these "Lost Paintings" in the next few weeks here. And someday figure out how to mount the damn things. You can see the stack of some of them below, rolled up.

Just some of the 40 - 60"+ size paintings I have rolled up. They are from 2006 and need to be finally mounted and seen by the world!

5 Guidelines to Choosing Mats for Pictures

Keep in mind these are guidelines to choosing mats for your framed pictures, not rules, I hate rules. There is a kind of rudimentary science to design and color choosing, and the following tips are from years of professional picture framing experience. As a service worker, your job is of course to give the customer what they want, but as a framer it was also my job to steer them away from doing anything they won't end up liking when it's finished. Because if it looks bad, they will complain, trust me.

There are two main reasons to mat your photos and artwork on paper, prints, etc. Number one is to separate the picture from the glass, (otherwise the glass sticks to the work). Number two is to give the art 'breathing room' from the frame. When a frame is right up on the art I don't like it at all, it looks crowded to me.

1. Reconsider choosing white. As an artist, I was taught to mat in white, but after years of picture framing my perspective has changed. White always washes out a piece and is distracting to me. Neutral colors like light gray tones, taupes, gray-blues, etc. - yes; stark white - no. Never choose a mat that is brighter than the brightest point in the picture. Also try not to use any mat that is darker than the darkest point.

2. Wider is better. People have a tendency to want to put this tiny little mat on their pictures. The practical use for a mat is to separate the art from the glass, but stylistically so that the piece can 'breathe'. Two inches of total mat width is fine for pictures 11 x 14 and smaller maybe, but anything larger go at least three inches wide.

3. Use colors from the piece, this relates to the first rule. I try to choose a somewhat neutral top mat that is one of the second or third most prevalent colors from the work. Never choose mat colors based on what room the piece will hang in, always choose what is best for the art only.

4. Use multiple mats, or double-thick mats even, this will add depth. I like to use two mats, tying in the bottom color with the frame color. The top-mat I tend to go with neutral tones and earth tones and any combination thereof. So if the frame is dark silver, maybe a light gray top-mat with a dark gray bottom mat. Or an oak frame with a light cream top mat and wheat colored bottom mat for example. Using three mats even is good for some pieces, and you can stick the darker color in between the lighter top mat and same light color bottom mat.

5. Use cotton rag mats. Acid free mats are actually (I don't know what the percentage is) not completely acid-free all the way through. Cotton rag mats are, they are the true archival mat. They only come in nice natural, fairly neutral earth tones. Your local picture framer should know what they are and be able to give you a quick display if he or she is nice. If they don't know what you're talking about, I would rethink having them as my framer maybe.

And as I said these are guidelines not rules, if you want a 6" wide triple-mat with bright yellow tones, then so be it. Ultimately it's up to you and your personal taste as to what you like and what you think looks good with the art. But there is a basic process that is fairly standard to sort out what works and what doesn't. Hopefully I've shed a little light on that process with the tips above.

Archival Mounting Methods

One thing I noticed in my work as a professional picture framer is that a lot of artwork brought in to be framed or re-framed was not mounted properly. Archival mounting means securing the artwork to the matboard, and/or backing board using completely reversible (no damage to the art) acid-free materials. Proper archival mounting is essential when framing a piece of artwork. I'll go over some of the basic principles involved and two different methods of archival mounting here.

As I said, archival mounting needs to be completely reversible. This means no permanent mounting methods like spray glue (even if it's acid free) or drymounting. For older, fragile, ripped apart material that you don't value price-wise, go ahead and have it drymounted, (glued to a backing board using a heat press and thin plastic sheets called drymount tissue). Let's say you're a photographer though and you want to use acid free spray glue with acid free mat backing or foamcore, that is up to you; some frame shops will refuse to permanently mount any photo or original art, even kid's art.

One of the best ways of archival mounting is to use acid-free photo corners, found at most craft and art supply stores. (Rule of art supplies - if it doesn't say acid-free don't trust that it is). You use one photo corner for each corner of the art, centering it on your backing board. The backside of the photo corner sticks to your acid-free foamcore backing and you slip the corner of the artwork in the front flap. Your mat should overlap your art enough so that it covers the photo corners. Use double-sided sticky tape to secure the mat to the backing board, careful not to get any near the art.

An easier method of mounting your paper artwork is to attach it to the back of your mat using acid-free tape (solid white), or even better - archival quality hinging tape. (I recommend linen hinging tape for heavier paper like watercolor. And again - all materials used should say acid free or archival). This is easier than photo corners but could cause some slight tear damage if you ever take it off. The proper hinging method is to have two strips along the top of the paper with half on the mat and half on the paper. You only hinge the top and you leave a gap between the strips of tape because this will keep your paper from having a slight ripple. Then you lay another piece of tape vertically across the first one on each side. Finally, you use a bone (it's like a shoehorn, or you can use any small round blunt object) to firmly press and secure the tape down onto the art and mat.

These two methods are for works on paper that are going to be matted. Acid-free foamcore should always be used as your backing board, (found at your local art supply or frameshop - it has a creamy color, regular foamcore is solid white). All of the materials described - the foamcore, photo corners, sticky tape (or ATG tape), hinging tape and matboard all come in acid-free versions (if not at an art supply store, then at a crafts or scrapbooking store). For really heavy pieces on paper there is a more-in depth way to mount the work using special rice paper, but that is a whole other post! A high quality archivally mounted piece of art might cost a little more to produce, but is so worth it in the long run. Done right, you should never need to unmount it, (but if you do you can with little or no damage to the art - this is the goal of archival mounting).

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Stretching Your Own Canvas

In the article I posted a few days ago, I mentioned stretching your own canvas. So today I thought I would actually talk about that in detail for those that are interested. I'll show you everything involved from start to finish. (Well I will leave varnishing your painting for another article.) But I will take you from cutting your wood to priming and stretching your canvas.

The basic idea is you have 4 pieces of wood that are joined into a frame, and you have a piece of canvas that is larger than the frame by at least a couple inches on all sides (preferably more). You then pull or stretch the canvas over the frame and secure it in place, but I'll get to that later let's start with the frame. The wood pieces used for stretching canvases are called stretcher bars or strips. You can get wood molding by the foot from a frame wholesaler, called strainer bar. Whether you use stretcher bars or strainer, they are both strips of wood cut with an angle or curve on the front so that when the canvas is stretched over it, it sits only on the outer edge. Otherwise you get a large underlying wood print all the way around your painting.

The much easier route is to buy stretcher bars; individual wood strips sold by the inch ($1- $3ea.) with grooves cut in the end for easy attachment. You just insert the grooves to join each side and then hammer in strips of wood to wedge them tightly together, (very easy). Stretcher bars come in standard sizes and are sold at art supply stores, or for more heavy-duty professional bars try these online sellers: Madison Art Shop, Upper Canada Stretchers.

If you use strainer stock, (available from wholesale frame suppliers for >$1 a foot) you will need to cut the wood yourself. You can even just get a miter box and cut it with a handsaw (it doesn't have to be pretty, you can sand it down after if you want.) Remember to measure from the outside edge of your cut; end to end. This will give you your finished size.

You will need a vice grip or two for this next part. Take your now cut strips of wood and join the two opposite ends, taking care that you actually have the correct corresponding pieces. Join them permanently by putting the two ends in the vice with wood glue in between, getting a fair amount of glue on both pieces of the wood, don't just do one side. Coming from a professionally trained framer, you can never use too much glue when joining wood molding, just make sure the vice is really tight and wipe the excess glue off. While the glue is setting you can gently tap a small nail into the end, one on each side for larger pieces. Leave it set, depending on your wood glue, but 40 minutes should be plenty of time. Repeat this for the opposite side and then the two remaining angles. And there you have your frame, it doesn't have to be especially pretty, you're just going to put canvas over it.

Like I said before, obviously the outer edge of the frame is the size of your finished painting. Get your canvas, (cut from your own roll is the most inexpensive way, or any art store usually can cut you a custom-sized piece) a few inches larger than each side of your frame. If your frame is 16 x 20" get a piece that is 22 x 26"(3 inches extra for each side), this gives you plenty of room to work with.

The canvas can be bought primed or un-primed. Acrylic gesso is what is usually used to prime canvas. It's used to seal the fabric so that the paint just doesn't sink into and get absorbed by the fabric, (although Helen Frankenthaler just soak-stained much of her canvases). Buying pre-gessoed canvas is what I like to do, but if you're really gung-ho you can do it yourself. Just get a tub of gesso and some cheap brushes and cover the unstretched canvas (or stretched I suppose it doesn't matter) with the paint in 3 or 4 good coats.

So now you have your piece of canvas and you're frame and you're ready to stretch. You need canvas pliers, (long flat-nosed pliers). Thin pliers will just pull and tear the canvas. You also need an industrial staplegun, found at your local hardware store. You're going to shoot the staples through the canvas into the back of the frame, (this way the staples don't show and you won't need an outer frame). To start stretching, center the canvas over the frame, pull the edge over on one side and put a staple into the back of the wood in the center. Then use your canvas pliers to pull the opposite side (again from the center) pretty tight and shoot a staple in the back of the wood through the canvas.

Then choose a remaining side and again stretch from the center and put a staple in the back, until all four sides have one staple in the center point securing it. These are your test points, if the canvas is reasonably tight and you have the same 2 or 3 inches of extra canvas edge all the way around, continue to stretch your canvas. Otherwise pull the test points out and re-center it. To continue stretching start with one side and find the approximate center point between the edge and the center-point you just made. Stretch the canvas and shoot the staple in. Do this for the other end of the same side, again finding the point between the center and the edge. So now you have 3 staples in this side. Repeat this for the other three sides, and hopefully your canvas should still be centered.

Continue to pull and shoot your canvas following the pattern of; starting from the center and working your way out, going side by side. If you stretch one side at a time, it's going to pull the canvas in ways that will not make it flat when it's done. Remember we are shooting the staples into the back of the wood frame. It's a little more of a pain in the butt than stapling in the side, but it looks nicer and you get a gallery quality stretched canvas.

So all in all you really don't need a lot of equipment (in addition to the wood and fabric) to completely stretch your own canvas. You need a miter box and a hand saw, a vice or two, canvas pliers, wood glue, nails and a staplegun. As I said, the easy thing to do is to go with standard sizes and use the pre-cut stretcher bars. Taking into account the time spent cutting and joining strainer stock, this probably saves you money. Stretcher strips are maybe not quite as sturdy as strainer stock but they allow for tension and are easier to join, just make sure to get the ones that are 1-1/2 inches thick.

The easiest thing to do of course is just to buy your canvas pre-stretched, it is a lot less hassle. But if you want to really get into all the processes of creating every element of you work, you can have fun doing it, and it is a lot less expensive especially in the case of larger canvases. Take for example a 40 x 60" size gallery-stretched (stapled on the back and 1-1/2" tall) canvas. It can run you 50 or 60 bucks. Compared with less than twenty, easy, to do it yourself; after you've made a small investment in the equipment listed above. I am not going to say I don't buy pre-stretched canvases, but I have stretched pleeeenty of my own and I am darn good at it if you ask me. I hope this article helps you with your artistic endeavors. -Ed T.

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5 Tips for Do-it-Yourself Picture Framing

Let me tell you a little bit about myself, I have more than seven years experience has a professional custom framer. I have designed, (mats, layout, color, style) mounted and framed literally thousands and thousands of prints, photographs, paintings, keepsakes, or whatever. One thing I noticed being a framer is that a lot of artists don't know a whole lot about framing their art. So, coming from an experienced framer, allow me to share some general tips for framing and some do-it-yourself tips to help you save money and have a high quality framed piece of art. (It's really about 15 tips wrapped up into 5 topics). If these tips help you, think about digging the post at the end.

● Use an industrial staplegun as a cheap alternative to a point driver.

You might have heard of what is called a point driver. It's what shoots points into the back of the inside of the frame, sitting against the backing holding the art and glass in place against the lip of the frame. You don't need to spend the $75 a professional point driver might cost you, something that works just as well is a heavy duty staplegun or industrial staplegun available at your local hardware store. You just need to shoot the staples at a close angle so that they are secure but leaving enough room you can bend them a little bit. Also you can use the staplegun to secure your stretched canvas over stretcher bars, it's cheaper than buying pre-stretched canvas.

● Use archival materials.

Without getting into too much into detail (I'll leave that for another article), one material to definitely use is UV-protected glass. Normal 1/8" glass (the thickness used for framing) blocks only 40% of UV-rays, it doesn't matter if it's natural or artificial light. I can't tell you how many pictures I re-framed (thousands) that weren't even worth being re-framed because they were so badly faded, sometimes even only after a couple of years. Conservation glass or UV-protected glass will keep your art or print from fading, it blocks 99% of UV-rays. It's even available at Home Depot or most larger hardware stores. If it's a big piece, consider using UV plexi-glass. It's a lot cheaper to buy your glass at a hardware store than at a frame or glass shop, and make sure and ask them to cut it for you too. (Make sure you measure the exact size you need, within a 1/16th of an inch.)

● Use Open-Backed Frames.

Maybe you have heard of open-backed frames? There are several large retail chains (I'm not going to mention names) that sell these. It's just the frame itself with no glass and no backing. And at some of those retail chains you can use their 'percentage off one-item' coupon. I described what to do about glass above and for a backing you should use acid-free foamcore (about $15 for a 32 x 40" sheet from a frameshop, they should cut it for you at no charge, if they don't, you shouldn't do business there). Going this route will save you a ton of money versus paying the frameshop to do the whole thing.

● Frame to the Style of the Piece.

About the frame choice itself though; think about what style of art you are framing. For example - for a print from the renaissance era, maybe a fairly wide gold or silver frame with some carving in it. For a modern painting on canvas, maybe just pulled over stretcher bars and stapled on the back (not the sides), with no frame. For a landscape of the west I would choose a wooden frame with a nice stain with no or a minimal carving design in it. Just think about what it is you are framing and make appropriate choices. Some people frame to match a room, I suggest framing strictly for the art, who cares what room it's going in; a good frame job should last 50 years if not more. I always prefer wood to metal frames, metal frames are good for college students or something but not as long-term solutions to framing quality art.

● The Best Heavy Duty Glue: Liquid Nails.

This last suggestion is more of a general arts and crafts tool. It's called Liquid Nails, a super-duty awesome glue, found at craft and hardware stores. This stuff will seriously hold anything to anything else; metal, wood, glass, plastic, whatever you want to mount or fix permanently, you can use Liquid Nails. Hey if someone from Liquid Nails is reading this, you should send me some free because of the free advertising. But seriously this stuff is dependable and ridiculously strong, don't get it on your fingers. Framer tested: framer approved.

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