Benefit from my experience and let me take some mystery out of the process...
Doing your own framing can be a thoroughly rewarding creative process all on it's own, even if the work you are framing was created by someone else. It can also be intimidating and mystifying (not to mention costly). Let me give you just a few tips to help you along.
If you purchase an unframed piece (photo or other paper based work) at an art show or similar venue, it will be packed with a mat (which you may or may not stick with). That mat is really just for the protection of the piece and to give you a little white space to view it against so you can appreciate the image against a clean background. Other than that, unless you like white matting (and sometimes it is exactly what you want), you can disregard it completely once you have made your purchase.
You march into a frame shop (or framing department of your local craft store) and suddenly realize you have a million decisions to make.
- Do you want the photo/art mounted? I highly recommend this option, especially with large prints. Photo paper, especially, can sag a bit over time which leads to ripples in the image. Mounting an image to a fixed backing saves your image from that fate. If you purchased a piece that was framed and see this happening, take it to a frame shop and have them take it out and mount and reframe for you. Easy to do and not expensive. I just had a piece remounted for $11. Super easy. In fact, before I learned this, I wasn't mounting mine necessarily, unless they were quite large. When I saw an 8x10 sagging recently I realized I, personally, will ALWAYS mount my work. If you bought one of mine from those early days and it's sagging on you, take it to Hobby Lobby and they can fix it quickly and cheaply. You know I was selling my early work nearly at cost anyway, so I'm sorry if you have to end up remounting but that learning curve of mine is part of why my work was so silly cheap. All part of the process.
- Do you want it matted? What kind of bevel? Double mat? Fillet? If you are not good with color, take along someone who is and has an idea of your space. Frame shop people will also help, but I've had mixed results following their well meaning advice. The right matting can transform an image completely and bring a depth to it that may astound you. Take your time...this is not a project to do in the middle of running a day full of errands. Which colors do you want to bring out of the image? Where is it going to hang? Is there a textural element or a sheen you want to bring out (in the paper/canvas, or the image itself). Is there a small spot of interesting color that you could really make pop by adding a thin inner mat? Looking at the smaller areas of color rather than the predominant color is key here.
Here is an example: I was asked to do a custom framing of a photo that I love, entitled Blue Shore. As much as I love the image, I realized when I had the print in my hand that it was going to be an absolute bugger to frame. It is such a massive monochromatic image that it needed a mat to help give it structure. Not only that, but it was likely to go on a blue wall, or at least in a room with considerable blue...a blue in a room I had never seen outside of a web photo. Not all blues are the same. Some tend toward purple, some toward green, some have pastel hues...Blue Shore has a definite metallic cast due to the effect of water on the stone. (It's a kelp(?) adorned boulder on the Rhode Island shoreline when the tide has gone out). Trying to match that blue was just never going to happen. HOWEVER, check out the kelp-like plant. Gorgeous earth tones there. And tones that were exceptionally easy to find complementary matting for.
The double mat let me choose two tones from the plant, adding a little more depth. The inner mat did double duty by also bringing in the darker tone for the rustic wood frame. The frame was an easy choice because nothing says beach like driftwood, so the entire palette as well as the material choices were cohesive.
Material choice, color, texture...take all into consideration.
As for bevel...mats are cut at an angle. Why do you care? Because it adds another line of color, usually white, to the mix. I generally ask for a "reverse bevel" to avoid that. Imagine the matting above with two thin white lines running on the inside of both mats here. It would change it completely and not for the better by adding one more thing for the eye to take in when nothing in the photo is white. It would be subtle, but it would absolutely compete with the image. Some mats are made to bevel in a contrasting color. Some white mats are black behind, for example, so that the bevel cut reveals a thin black edge. There are cases where that can add quite a nice level of sophistication to a print.
You have to remember about the bevel because often the mat samples you will be playing with will be straight cut (bevel free entirely) and you may not realize the bevel will be added until you pick up the piece. If you forget, and don't like the result, no big deal. The frame shop can redo it.
Lastly, a fillet is a thin decorative strip that goes inside the mat, like a frame within a frame. If you are doing something "fancy", definitely consider playing with it.
For a rustic frame like the wooden one for Blue Shore, it didn't make any sense BUT for a dramatic highly textured treatment like I did for Electric Poppy here, it really tied the work together and gave a little extra containment to the riot of color, and a needed border between the color and the velvet textured mat.
(I did this for Erin, but she's given me permission to duplicate it because the world needs more than one. You will be able to see it in person in my Lincoln Park gallery space soon as the doors open there.)
- Glass. You mean I have to choose the glass, too?! Yes, kitten, you do. Choose museum glass unless you only want to view your work from certain areas or when the sun isn't shining. Regular frame glass is glare prone. Museum glass anti-reflection picture framing glass with Conservation Grade UV Protection is the best glazing option available for art, photographs and other important personal keepsakes. Along with its nearly invisible finish, it effectively blocks up to 99% of harmful indoor and outdoor UV light rays so framed pieces remain clearer and brighter for longer. Of course it costs more. It's worth it. End of story. (Both pieces above were done with museum glass. No glare in the photo...didn't realize that before, did you? Now you know.)
That's all very nice, Laura, but it gives me a headache. Can't you just do it for me? Why yes, I do custom framing of my images upon request. Here's the skinny on that.
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