The Framers Forum

Just been reading Roboframer's preceding post and saw this quote:

these dark heavy colours at first do look good but if you really look at it what they do is over power and deaden.

I frame the vast majority of work with either antique white or snowflake white Ingres, partly because it's a popular look and partly because of a lack of confidence in trying something different.

I've just done this, and I really didn't think light mats worked, so I went to town with the colours. Interested to hear people's views as it's the first time I've really experimented with this sort of thing.

Very Nice! Such a great looking moulding too! Is it "Rosetti" from Lion?

It is Mark, it's a gorgeous moulding... This is the pewter one - I'll certainly be using it again!

It's one of my own prints, so I wanted to try and really coordinate the frame and mounts with the print which is by the American illustrator Aaron Horkey. His work tends to be a bit dark and sinister, and so light matting looked really bland and didn't tie the print to the frame in any way.
I faffed about for ages, particularly with the red mount - the red in the print is so subtle, I wanted the mount to achieve a similar effect. So it's only 4mm wide, but I think it's just about right.

love the frame , you have lots of thin dark brown lines in the picture, lots of small detail and the very heavy dark brown mount is over powering, I would have done a much larger mount in a light colour with thin dark brown lines as mount detail to compliment not compete.

I will be ordering a sample of that frame.

I felt that a light mount next to such a dark and ornate moulding put too much visual emphasis on the frame... It kind of drew the eye to the frame first and the print second. Whilst the dark mount matches one of the ink colours of the print, I wanted it to act more like an extension of the frame to funnel the eye in... More like a slip (is that the correct terminology??)
It's interesting to hear people's thoughts, although I'm quite glad I didn't "default" to a light mat in this case...

The lovely thing about being a framer is that I can change this in minutes if I ever start to dislike it! Right now, it hangs on a landing halfway up my stairs and looks perfect, although it adds 5 minutes to my journey upstairs!

Because of the paper margin you have to leave around the image, I'd've probably reversed those colours and probably with a softer red, burgundy even, but just a sliver and with a reverse bevel so you don't get two white bevels so close together.

That way it would be more noticeable that the overall mount width is wider than the frame ..... but I don't dislike what you've done at all.

If that moulding had a matching mount slip it would be great

I don't have a problem with the dark mount colour. I re-frame plenty of older artworks customers and a lot of them go for the darker mounts and I usually agree.

If it looks right.....It is right!

Amen to that!

I don't think the off white with an accent would be wrong and I don't think this is wrong - I do think that the off white with an accent would be 'more right' for the vast majority, but then the vast majority drink Carlsberg and drive Fiestas!

This is micro-brew and (what do I drive ... oh yes ..) Volvo C70 D4, S.E. Lux - Solstice!

Love that Horkey, the mounts look great. His work really suits moulding with a little life in it! I've been meaning to get another of mine framed up, would be good to get a few ideas from the pros

Because of the paper margin you have to leave around the image, I'd've probably reversed those colours

Yeah, but you're the kind of guy that uses two apostrophes in one word! You little rebel, you!

I tried every combination with corner chevrons before deciding on this, and the print spent 3 weeks in the workshop before the decision was made!!

I quite like that micro-brewery analogy... It was done very much for my own tastes, and whilst it would have been tempting to steer a customer towards something safer, it's nice to be able to try these things safe in the knowledge that it can be changed in a few minutes for a few quid.

Chenley, what Horkey pieces do you have? I'm a bit obsessed...

Whale bone grove (blue), return of the king (reg), two towers (reg), siren, cache, to harrow a naïf, and Spring (Horkey/Ryan). Just sold my Graveyard as I didn't really need that and the Siren, both beautiful pieces. What about yourself?

The Sigur Ros is my first piece... I'm particularly keen to get my hands on a Two Towers regular, and Tallow...
Not overly blown away by the Remy print that dropped recently, I don't think the genre gave him sufficient opportunity to let his personality shine through...
Do you buy direct or wait for flips on Ebay?

Have you heard of EB? I mainly buy from other collectors, mondo, also have a friend who is in his THC. The Two Towers is beautiful. Prices on eBay tend to be much higher then EB

Not too keen on the Remy either, with Disney there will always be shackles. I thought he'd go with Pinocchio myself

Yep, I'm a regular browser of EB... I might have to put a wanted ad up for a TT... I'm not a fan of the films, but I think that poster is Horkey's masterpiece.

I'm a bit disappointed that he did the Remy piece - I really think he should follow his heart a bit more and work in genres that benefit from his dark, sinister and slightly warped reality. But, I suppose he is a commercial artist so he'll tackle anything.

There Will Be Blood is another on my wishlist, they're starting to command silly prices though...

They are indeed (I really wanted that one but was working when it dropped). I've found trades make the most sense. People just put ridiculous prices on things but print for print works out much better.

Hopefully he will have some good art prints out soon enough.

I've just had a look at your website, looks good! I'll bookmark it...

Thank you very much. It's all relatively new but it's been fun so far

It's really good to see someone this side of the Atlantic producing this stuff, and the work so far looks great. It would be fantastic to see these becoming sought after by US collectors!

I've liked your Facebook page, do you have plans for more posters?

It's odd you should say that, as most of our sales have been US and European based. We have a a lot of followers from the UK but not the greatest sales.

We have eight titles in progress at the moment. We're just waiting on artists at the moment. I'm also trying to thrash out a deal with a major US production company to get some more Blockbuster titles, fingers crossed on that

The mount etc looks fine but I really dislike this sort of frame, What is it supposd to be/represent?. looks plastic a lifeless.