Photo Contest for Free Picture Framing Products

We’re giving away $500 in gift certificates to Frame Destination. Like us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/FrameDestination?sk=app_95936962634), then submit your original photo or artwork in our contest. Come back and encourage your friends to vote for your entry. The entries with the most votes will win! The prizes are:

1st place: $250 Frame Destination Gift Certificate
2nd Place: $150 Frame Destination Gift Certificate
3rd Place: $100 Frame Destination Gift Certificate

DIY (Do-it-Yourself) Framing

You’re a photographer and have an upcoming gallery exhibit. The
gallery wants your images to be framed and you’ve decided to do the
framing yourself. There are three basic options for DIY framing:

Option 1 – Purchase Ready-Made Frames

Ready-Made frames are complete frame packages available in retail outlets like Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby and Michaels. Many of these frames are non-archival and only available in standard frame sizes such as 8×10, 11×14, 16×20, and 18×24. The advantage of purchasing ready-made frames is that they are inexpensive, usually because they are manufactured overseas. The disadvantage is that you cannot mix and match frame choices, mat colors, and different types of glazing or backing.

Option 2 – Purchase Pre-Cut Framing Materials

Professional framing supply companies sell picture framing materials – frames, glass, Acrylic, mat board, and foam core backing board that is already pre-cut for easy photo art framing. Many of these framing supply companies have online stores that allow you to order components in the exact dimensions needed to frame your custom-sized artwork. The advantage of purchasing pre-cut framing materials is that they save you a tremendous amount of time and labor (vs custom framing) and provide you with a greater selection of sizes and colors. The disadvantage is that pre-cut materials are more expensive than un-cut materials.

Option 3 – Purchase Un-Cut Materials

A lot of framing supply companies provide the option of purchasing uncut picture framing materials so you can cut and design the frame’s components yourself. To properly work with raw materials you need a mat-cutter and a glass or acrylic cutter. And if you are really ambitious, a miter saw for cutting the frame moulding. The advantage of purchasing un-cut framing materials is that they are cheaper than pre-cut materials. The disadvantage is that working with un-cut materials requires time, labor, and specialty equipment. In addition, raw picture framing materials tend to be very large, for example – 32”x40” sheets of mat board and 10 foot sticks of moulding, which increases shipping costs and creates storage issues.

Preservation & Archival Framing of Photos

People who are new to framing often have many questions about how to frame their photography in a way that will help prevent yellowing and fading. The Image Permanence Institute (IPI), a leader in the development of practices for the preservation of images, has some great information about archival framing. With their permission, we have taken one of their extensive articles and published it on our website at: A Consumer Guide to Materials for Preservation Framing and the Display of Photographic Images.

This is a very comprehensive article. It starts with an introduction to the various components of the picture frame package, which makes it a great introduction to framing. It then moves into the types of decay that cause degradation of photos, discusses best practices and offers has tips the on proper display of framed photography.

IPI has additional articles on care and stability of photo papers, film and digital prints here: IPI Publications

New Nielsen Metal Frame Colors

We have recently added some new colors to our metal picture frames. These colors are primarily at the request of our customers. We added German Silver as a warm alternative to Frosted Silver. Contrast Grey is a different kind of dark moulding that many photographers prefer and we added Antique Gold.

The German Silver, and especially the Contrast Grey can take on different looks depending on the color of the light and angle so we strongly recommend that you purchase straight or corner samples of the moulding before buying frames. It is very difficult to get an accurate idea of how your print will look next to these frames in your display environment by looking at web-based pictures that have reduced color gamut.

German Silver is available in Nielsen metal frame profiles: 12, 15, 97 and 117
Contrast Grey is available in Nielsen metal frames: 12, 15, and 117
Antique Gold is available in Nielsen frames: 15 and 117
Metal frame profile 99 has a special textured version of German Silver called Brushed German Silver.

Shop Now: Metal Picture Frames

Cheers,
Mark
Frame Destination, Inc.

How to Clean and Care for Acrylic

Acrylic has three qualities that make it an excellent substitute for glass in picture framing. It is shatterproof, lightweight and an excellent thermal insulator. Acrylic does require some special care and handling. Listed below are suggestions for cleaning and caring for acrylic.

Cleaning:

Never use glass cleaners that contain ammonia.

Never use paper towels to clean acrylic they may scratch the surface.

Plastic cleaners such as Brillianize Acrylic Cleaner & Polish are safe and help reduce static charge.

Use a soft cloth, such as a Microfiber Smooth Towel to clean
the surface

Reducing Static Charge:

Before removing the protective cover, dampen a soft cloth with water and wipe down all the edges. After removing the protective cover, you can use an acrylic cleaner such as Brillianize Acrylic Cleaner & Polish applied to both sides of the acrylic to reduce static electricity.

Mark Rogers
Frame Desintination, Inc.

Expand your Knowledge about Picture Framing with our new Glossary

If you are new to art framing and looking to educate yourself on picture framing terminology, we invite you to check out our new picture framing glossary. The glossary defines terms related to framing fine art and photography such as gallery wrap, bottom-weighting, triple mat, rabbet and riser. In addition, we have included images and diagrams to help illustrate the difference between terms that can often be confusing such as overlap, artwork size and reveal. Our goal is for the frame glossary to serve as a resource for artists, photographers and home decorators seeking to broaden their knowledge of picture framing.

Check it out here: Picture Framing Glossary
Cheers,
Mark
Frame Destination, Inc.

Storage and Framing Products Safe for Photos

When you are storing or framing your photography and need the prints to last it is important that you select the proper materials. The Image Permanence Institute developed the Photographic Activity Test (or PAT) to help manufactures verify materials are safe. PAT is an international standard test (ISO18916) for evaluating photo-storage and display products and explores interactions between photographic images and the materials they are stored inside. You can get more information about it here: Photographic Activity Test. The important part is to check manufactures specifications to see if they certify their materials pass PAT or ISO 18916.

The Image Permanence Institute website has many free consumer guides you can download here: IPI Publications Here are just some of the photo storage articles available on their website:

Storage Guide for Color Photographic Materials
A Consumer Guide to Traditional and Digital Print Stability
A Consumer Guide for the Recovery of Water-Damaged Traditional and Digital Prints
A Consumer Guide to Modern Photo Papers
A Consumer Guide to Understanding Permanence Testing
A Consumer Materials for Preservation Framing and the Display of Photographic Images

Cheers,
Mark

Pros and Cons of Acrylic for Framing

Many art galleries prefer artwork that is framed with acrylic. Acrylic is a type of glazing that can be used in place of glass for picture framing. It is often referred to by the brand name of Plexiglas. Frame Destination sells a high quality acrylic manufactured by Evonik under the brand name Acrylite®. Listed below are the pros and cons of acrylic.

Pros:

Shatterproof

Lightweight compared to glass

More optically pure than glass (no green tint)

Excellent thermal insulator

Cons:

Scratches easily

Will attract dust due to its static electric properties

Susceptible to bowing (not as stiff as glass)

More expensive than standard glass

We suggest that you weigh the pros and cons before deciding if acrylic is right for you. For instructions on how to clean acrylic please see our care guide here: Acrylic and Plexiglas Cleaning and Static Removal

References: “Caring for your art: A guide for artists, collectors, galleries and art institutions” by Jill Snyder.

Having trouble safely transporting your artwork?

Frame Destination, Inc created the GalleryPouch™ bubble bag to help solve the problem of transporting large picture frame art and canvas gallery wraps to galleries, shows, labs, and customers. They can also be used to transport and protect small items such as an iPod or camera gear.

To celebrate the first year anniversary of GalleryPouch™ bubble bags, we’ve decided to give away 25 GalleryPouch™ Gold w/ Velcro® bags (up to 18×24 inches in size) during the month of November. For more information or to enter, visit our Facebook page:
GalleryPouch Contest

Official rules are here: gallerypouch.com/contest01

GalleryPouch™ is composed of a special 3rd web bubble wrap material that sandwiches the bubbles between layers of heavy duty plastic film so the bubbles are protected from being popped.

New Framing Example on Website

We have recently added some new framing examples in the Frame Product Gallery on our website to show how some of our framing products can be used. The example picture is our Profile 205 wood picture frame with a triple mat board around a photo of Willie Nelson. The photo is by Shelly Katz.

For many years Frame Destination only carried Gallery Style frames. Gallery Style frames are simple black frames with white mats commonly used photography exhibits. Over the years we have expanding our selection of frames and mat board colors. We have also added floater frames. Floater frames are ideal for really setting off your canvas gallery wraps. You can also check out examples of a canvas gallery wraps in our product gallery: Frame Product Gallery.

Cheers,
Mark