Beautiful framing should always enhance the artwork without overwhelming it.
My goal – using color, design and style – is to draw the viewer's eye to the artwork. The mat, frame and glass work in harmony to complement and protect the art with the use of archival materials.
Below are examples of framework I've done for my customers.
This is a simple collage on paper with a beautiful deckled edge. We floated it on a dark background to enhance the edge, then chose to double mat the piece to accent the other colors. The frame has a beaded texture that completes the piece.
This piece is an antique magazine cover. It looks like it has a simple triple mat, but if you look closely, you’ll see that I cut the top mat in two tones to match the dark and light tones in the background. The two under mats complement the lighter colors and separate the top mat from the image. We chose a very traditional gold metal leaf moulding to finish this piece.
The shape of the artwork design demanded that the mat be cut to complement that shape.
This piece has the rich and wonderful color of water. We wanted to expand the feel of the water with the blue tones. We then chose the complementary color for the frame to draw the eye back toward the swimmer.
Shadow Boxes are a very special way to put together memories with 3 dimensional items. Often my customer has a box of items that all play together to make a memory. The challenge is to pick out the items that most represent the memory and then put them together in a visual way. This pair of shadowboxes were created to give to two cousins. The customer's grandmother was quite the cook. Each piece had half of the apron, one of grandma’s recipes and a photo of grandma in her youth. A lovely memory for the two young women these were created for.
Capturing a memory of youth... We wanted to display this collection in an appealing way that brought back the energetic feel of the times.
One of my specialties is working with fabric pieces. To stretch needle art in an archival way is a challenge. I use a technique called “lacing” where I fold the extra cloth (sometimes adding cotton muslin to create extra fabric) around a backing. I stitch back and forth one side to the other, snug the lacing up, being careful to keep the grain of the fabric straight. Then I repeat with the top and bottom. This creates a wrinkle free piece that can then be matted and framed. I never use glue on fabric pieces. With this piece we kept the frame very simple, complementing the color with the frame and adding gold bead fillet to accentuate the texture.
This 35 star flag is from the Civil
War, valid from June 1863 to October
1864. It is 4.5' x 8' oversized and
fragile. I stitched it to a piece of linen
to stabilize it. I then stretched it by lacing the linen
over a double thick piece of
foamcore that was covered with 100% cotton batting.
A spacer was placed between the flag
and the plexiglass so the flag would
not touch the plexiglass. The frame was then
fitted with a simple rustic style
frame.
This piece was donated by the owner to
our local school district; it hangs in
the lobby of Longfellow
Elementary School.
This lovely oil painting is a sample of the difference a frame can make. The first photo shows the older mounting that is very busy and detracts from the painting. In the second photo we chose a classic bronze moulding with a narrow gold fillet. By simplifying the frame we made the artwork the focal point.
