What do you want your framed piece to look and feel like when you get it home? 

• Design comes down to a gut feeling, you can hear it in a person’s words “This feels right”, or “That feels wrong”.  I tell my customers that “your instincts are right 90% of the time — so trust them”.  It often when the brain and logic get involved that design mistakes happen.
• When the art and frame design are balanced and well thought out – the viewer  will first see the whole presentation as one piece, second the art and third the framing. It is custom and each frame package is designed and hand-crafted for a specific person — there is no mass production here.
• For instance:   the client wants to fit the art into a room where there are no colors in common with the desired artwork and wants to frame the art to match the room.  This person may get a few compliments on their art – they might hear ‘what a nice frame’, 'nice picture' or nothing at all.  No raves here!  So where is there somewhere else this artwork would show better?
• Another example:  the artwork and framing style are out of sync with the rooms design and feel.  The room is very modern and the art and framing is very traditional or vintage  This technique and the reverse can work but, it has to be done with care.  The boldness may be hard to live with for some of us.  If the framing is picked to compliment or enhance the art by using elements within the art—that customer will get multitudes of compliments on their artwork. 
  
• Most admirers won’t notice that it’s not the exact same shade of ‘blue/red/whatever’ used in the room.  It doesn't need to match, just go with.
• When art is bought because it resonates in the buyer, the art can then be the jump off point for the room's design and colors.  When done this way the art, the room, the furnishings, the accessories and the owner end up being comforted and comfortable within the environment they have created around their art.  If you absolutely love the artwork and don’t want to change your décor—you may have to find a new location for the art.  Then look for artwork that you may not love but that goes with your décor.
• Another strong reason to frame to the art is that you will generally change the wall colors, buy new furniture or rugs before you will re-frame your art— most art has a minimum of 10-15 years before you may outgrow it. When the art is framed to the décor -  re-framing to fit the new décor will become a necessity.  When you frame to the art it will always look good.   You may have to move the art to a new location or room—but you won’t need to re-frame. 
• So, you wish to match your décor, especially if you love to follow trends – frame using inexpensive, decorative posters and decorative framing or choose art that will compliment your decor and won't hurt as much when you get tired of them and want to dispose of them.  This art would be bet as filler or as an accent/trend piece.

After all you frame that expensive fine art to highlight your local framer, right? — OR is it to highlight your good taste in art! 

Art and Frame Enhancements


What are the elements that go into a beautiful, effective and unique frame design?  

There are litterally thousands of matting and framing options to explore:   do we add a fillet to the mat, or to the frame.  Do we use fabrics, such as linen, silk, suede or a multitude of other choices.  What is the mood we want to capture:  modern, contemporary, tradtional, victorian, or eclectic.  A romantic piece such as a wedding or engagement photo may suggest silks, golds and silvers with a fillet inside the mat.  A funny, funky piece of art may call for framing that is not the "normal" and require thinking outside the box with multiple moldings, mixed mats and whatever it takes to make the piece (not just the frame or just the art) look fabulous.  

A "masterpiece" is different for each person and each project and should reflect the art, the home and the client.

Come in with your art and your ideas.  Between us we will create your masterpiece.

Other pages to explore are: 

• Elements of Design and Enhancing Your Art
• Art Protection
  
• Matting: a bit about why and what conservation matting is.
  
• Mounting: the basics of why mounting is important
• Glazing: A brief description of the types and uses of glass, acrylic and other glazing materials

Since moving back from the east coast I have managed to work in a large variety of retail framing establishments.  Some were small and exclusive, others large national franchises and one somewhere in between (local custom frame designer that carried the major publishing lines).
 I developed my talents further at North Wind Designs (John's Landing) where I learned gallery design and layout, display and fine tuned my framing skills.  I next managed the framing department for Obeidi-Sinclair's Frame Department in old town Portland.  I developed my management and diplomacy as I sometimes had to discuss, explain and help the owner (new to the business at that time) understand pricing and the bottom line.  He was sometimes generous to a fault. 
I next joined Deck the Walls, Clackamas.  Here I learned to manage a mall store with huge volume while working closely with the owner.  We then opened a store in the Valley River Mall in Eugene.  Where I honed my window display skills and started a pattern of creating rooms, in a 3.5 deep window.  It was challenging to create the illusion I wanted. After a couple of years we opened the Washington Square Mall location.  
I decided to move to a different type of store and returned to Gallery International (I had worked a short stint here before Deck the Walls).  Mike, the owner, and I had some tricky challenges in style and design the first time around. His way or else, but in the process we learned to like and respect each other.  When I returned to Gallery International the times had changed and the way people were purchasing art had changed.  No more collectors buying everything the artist  produced-now the buyers were more discriminating and only bought the pieces they really liked.  This meant the framing changed also and expanded into new ways of designing that were mare art-centric and unique.
In 1996 I got an opportunity to purchase a building in Newberg, Oregon and took the leap, not to just owning and operating my own galley and frame shop, but to property ownership and management (I had a tenant building on the property also).  
Wow, what a learning curve.  as my Mom said, I couldn't just get my toe wet I had to jump in up to my neck.


It has been an adventure and a beautiful challenge.  Now after 18 years I start a new adventure as My Personal Framer.

Stage 2:  The DIY experience
     Frame It Yourself in Ramsey, NJ.  My cousin Paula recruited me to move to Ramsey NJ and run her Ramsey, NJ "Frame It Yourself" business.  I worked as a manager and expanded the design and technique capabilities of the shop.  I brought skills from my Western Picture Frame experience to the NJ shop.  Framing techniques such as french lines, painted bevels, fabric mats, closed corner frames and a more sophisticated style than the previous manager.   
   Paula and I had similar design aesthetics so it worked well.  I enjoyed the time and the learning.  In our shop customers had the option to save money by building the frame and fitting their project,  or we did the piece custom.  For the DIY, the shop cut the mats, frame, did the mounts and other technical work.  Many times a customer would do it themselves and then in the future opt to have us do the work.  They understood and appreciated the value of the work we did after trying it themselves.  We had a die-hard diy following that came on Thursday nights to frame and chat.
     I lived in Southern New York state (the town of Warwick) and got to experience true seasons, snow, rain, heat (humidity-ugh!) and the much slower spring of the east.  I, of course, did Leaf Peak tours with various family members.  After 5 years I decided to move back to Oregon.

Stage One: Introduction to Custom Picture Framing.
I have been custom framing since 1983.  The first shop I worked in was Western Picture Frame, owned by the Luckey family.  This shop had been in the same family and location on NW 1st in downtown Portland since before the 1890 flood.  This was a cast iron front building similar to those at the right.  They had a photo on the design table that picture the shop with a boat tied in front and a window sign "We deliver by boat".  I learned history of framing, molding and techniques.  On the third floor were moldings dating back up to a hundred years on a mezzanine around the main floor.  I also saw and worked with the damage caused by early paper mats;  burns, weakness in the paper of the art, and discoloration caused by the lignin and acids in paper mat (see conservation/preservation).  I saw the damage done long before it became written, studied and published for the retail framer.  Museums had much of this knowledge, but until the '80's or so it wasn't seen as necessary by many retail frame designers.  Most of us know better now.

The second piece was delivered last week to the Wilson's for their movie room.  The piece is called Quiet Evening, Inside the Roche Line.  As Mr. Wilson explained 'The Roche Line is when an orbiting object is pulled into earth's gravity and will impact the earth".  


This piece is very dark so we ended up using a smooth black fabric to match the saturation of the art, an antique textured copper fillet and a soft purplish frame by Roma.  We also used Museum glass to reduce the glare.  **HInt-dark mats and art will become a mirror with out the correct anti-reflective glass.  

I recently completed and delivered two really fabulous client projects. 
Simonyi:  Limited photography,  originally framed in black mat and glossy black frame and a gold fillet which didn't work with the decor at all.  We redesigned the piece with nubby, textured silk and soft silver, wide fillet and soft brown distressed frame by Roma.  Soft, lux and beautiful in its setting.  the other follows