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Framing day
My art will be at the Colony Theatre for the month of March. Just me. All me. Yes. At a theatre showing indie films and 80s hits such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and The Goonies.
So yesterday was pretty productive even if my body felt like 80% snot.
Being an utter cheapskate means I've been picking up empty picture frames for months from thrift stores, flea markets and the creative re-use center and the bulk of them run from $0.50 - $3.00. The real challenge is sometimes finding frames in good condition and are not terribly ugly and unsuitable. Among the bigger frames, $7.00 was the most expensive (23" x 28" or so) and I won't spend that much again. Most of the time I got frames that still had their glass.
The ones that didn't, got measured. On Tuesday we went to Jerry's Artarama to get the glass cut for 3 frames, and also get a double-mat for the largest one. Glass ranged from about $7 (for 11" x 14") to $18 (20" x 25" stupid unusual size). In the future I'd probably thrift for standard-size glass, because I know I could have gotten a 11" x 14" frame with glass for less than $5 even if I don't need more frames at this point. No biggie. Jerry's also cuts mats at $5.50 per opening, not including the cost of the mat. (Mats were, however, on discount so I went at the right time.)
Jerry's was extremely fast and professional and they filled my glass and mat order on the spot. It took 20 minutes. No stupid questions, free and secure foamcore packing for the glass, and heck of a lot cheaper than Michael's ($10 cutting fee per mat, with a one-week wait for ONE mat the last time I checked with them). Glass wasn't as cheap at Jerry's as I'd have liked but combining new glass with thrift frames was definitely affordable compared with custom framing or even new standard frames (frequently more than 2 or 3 times what I was spending).
Matboard for mats that I cut myself were mostly picked up at Askew Taylor that was discontinuing their sale of mats. IIRC they were going for $2 or $3 apiece. Nice!
In the end the final count and tally might be about $90 spent over several months to frame (with mat, glass, frame plus hardware) 14-16 pieces. The 11" x 14" and larger pictures ranged from $3 - $18 to frame, with $23 being the outlier belonging to the biggest one (20" x 25").
Cost of framing is the downside of prepping watercolors and/or prints for shows (as opposed to ready-to-hang canvases), but I think I had a good handle on it. Paying full price for framing would have been like asking me to... I dunno, kill bunnies. Never going to happen, haha!
So yesterday was pretty productive even if my body felt like 80% snot.
Being an utter cheapskate means I've been picking up empty picture frames for months from thrift stores, flea markets and the creative re-use center and the bulk of them run from $0.50 - $3.00. The real challenge is sometimes finding frames in good condition and are not terribly ugly and unsuitable. Among the bigger frames, $7.00 was the most expensive (23" x 28" or so) and I won't spend that much again. Most of the time I got frames that still had their glass.
The ones that didn't, got measured. On Tuesday we went to Jerry's Artarama to get the glass cut for 3 frames, and also get a double-mat for the largest one. Glass ranged from about $7 (for 11" x 14") to $18 (20" x 25" stupid unusual size). In the future I'd probably thrift for standard-size glass, because I know I could have gotten a 11" x 14" frame with glass for less than $5 even if I don't need more frames at this point. No biggie. Jerry's also cuts mats at $5.50 per opening, not including the cost of the mat. (Mats were, however, on discount so I went at the right time.)
Jerry's was extremely fast and professional and they filled my glass and mat order on the spot. It took 20 minutes. No stupid questions, free and secure foamcore packing for the glass, and heck of a lot cheaper than Michael's ($10 cutting fee per mat, with a one-week wait for ONE mat the last time I checked with them). Glass wasn't as cheap at Jerry's as I'd have liked but combining new glass with thrift frames was definitely affordable compared with custom framing or even new standard frames (frequently more than 2 or 3 times what I was spending).
Matboard for mats that I cut myself were mostly picked up at Askew Taylor that was discontinuing their sale of mats. IIRC they were going for $2 or $3 apiece. Nice!
In the end the final count and tally might be about $90 spent over several months to frame (with mat, glass, frame plus hardware) 14-16 pieces. The 11" x 14" and larger pictures ranged from $3 - $18 to frame, with $23 being the outlier belonging to the biggest one (20" x 25").
Cost of framing is the downside of prepping watercolors and/or prints for shows (as opposed to ready-to-hang canvases), but I think I had a good handle on it. Paying full price for framing would have been like asking me to... I dunno, kill bunnies. Never going to happen, haha!
