Picture framing

 A couple of months ago I posted a blog on hanging pictures  but today I take a step back to look at the mounting and framing of artwork.

You may already have some frames lying around with pictures that you no longer like that can be recycled. I inherited some photos of buildings that my grandfather designed, so I selected those that I liked best, and gave one of them a face-lift to fit in with my colour scheme. I painted the natural wood frame and replaced the discoloured cream mount with a pale grey to blend in with the black-and-white photo. You will see that I gave a thin black border to the photo to accentuate the image because the mount was quite big for the size of the image.

An architectural photo in a refurbished frame and mount

I took one of the other frames and recycled it for a mono-print by my sister, Elizabeth Beard, of one of her land-art pieces that she made as a student. As with the architectural photo, I painted the frame that had become quite tatty over the years, and here I made a double mount, recycling the original cream mount but adding emphasis with a slightly darker beige mount.

A mono-print with a double mount

A friend of mine, Sally Gaule, often sources frames from thrift shops and markets: this photo by her of an informal dwelling in a disused building uses a crisp white mount with a thin black border to complement the weathered natural wood frame which she refurbished.

An old frame from a thrift shop complements this abstract photo by Sally Gaule

This brings me to the question of mounts: they are a great way of giving an artwork more presence in a room, not just because they need a larger frame, but the mount itself gives emphasis. When choosing the mounting board, select a colour that blends with both the artwork and the colour scheme of your room. If you are doing the framing yourself, be sure to use a very sharp craft knife or Stanley cutter and a steel ruler. This is a valuable investment. When you have a steel ruler, you will find many uses for it and will wonder how you managed without it!

The other source of picture frames is to get them new from a home shop, photographic shop, or other supplier. It is best not to order frames online, as you need to assess the quality of the frame. Check the back of the frame to see whether it is securely fixed and is not pulling apart at the corners. Most modern frames are of plastic, but some look very cheap, whereas others are quite acceptable. The more luxury shops still sell wooden frames, which are preferable as they have a much longer life and can be repaired, but these tend to be more expensive than plastic frames. 

In the photo below, I bought this modern frame with no specific artwork in mind, but decided to mount this William Morris textile design as the colours and textures blended so well. Off-the-peg frames are particularly suitable for framing photos, postcards and certificates, but for artwork I would usually recommend a wooden frame.

A William Morris design from a calendar in an off-the-peg frame

These ready-made frames also come in standard sizes, so check the measurements of your artwork before you go shopping. You will often find that the frame can house pictures of two sizes, with a mount or without. If your artwork is not a standard size, you will need to make your own custom mount, but try to match the general proportions, as the mount will ideally be a similar width all round the picture. In the photo below, you will see that the mount is wider on the sides than top and bottom, which is not ideal. This is quite a decorative frame, so it lends itself to a simple mount and a monochrome picture.

A shop-bought frame with a customised mount

Some artwork is just too different in proportions to be able to frame it with an off-the-peg frame, so here you will have to go to a picture framer, which is a much more expensive option. For this artist's woodcut prints on hand-made paper, I wanted to accentuate the tactile quality of the paper, so I opted for a glass-on-glass frame, giving a transparent border to the work. I have three pieces by this framer, all of the same width, but different height to match the proportions of each artwork, all of which are woodcut prints, so they make a single composition on one wall.

A woodcut print by E Mukwiro in a customised frame

The last piece that I would like to talk about is by a miniaturist, Peter Shreve: this highly intricate painting is smaller than a postcard. It was difficult to find a balance between making a frame big enough to give the work a presence but at the same time not to overwhelm it. The framers and I tried out many combinations of mounts and frames before deciding on this minimalist approach. 

A minimalist frame and mount for a miniature painting

There is so much more that can be said about picture framing - it can be as much of an art as the artwork it is protecting and displaying.