Sunday, January 16, 2011

Preparations for the contest


This weekend I got the materials needed for matting and framing my photos for the contest I'll be entering.  I've gotten many photos matted and framed professionally, and I've even had a mat cut and mounted it myself into a frame, but from what I've learned I pretty much did it all wrong before.

A special thanks goes out to my girlfriend, Natalie, for buying me my mat cutter for christmas.  The mat cutter is a Logan 450 Intermediate + mat cutter and it worked great.  I have no experience with other mat cutters, but this one came with an instructional dvd which was all of 10 minutes long at most, and gave very clear and concise directions on how to use it properly.



Aside from that, I got the mat from a local arts and crafts store called Michaels along with the frame.  At this point I thought I had everything I needed, but of course I was wrong.  After some Google searching to find out how to properly mount a photo to a mat, I found out I needed something called a "backing board" which is nothing more than 3/4 inch foamcore.  Also I was told the best tape to use is of a linen variety.  Back out to Michaels I went.  Turns out, the guy behind the framing counter at Michaels had absolutely no idea what I was talking about when I asked about linen tape.  Since he was so unhelpful (nothing against him personally, but I think that if you're going to be behind the framing counter, you'd better have a good idea of how to properly mount and frame photos.), I decided to go to a local art store even though Michaels did have the foamcore backing board I needed.

The woman at this art store did at least know what I was talking about when I mentioned the linen tape, but said that they don't carry it as it is very expensive and only sold to framers.  A quick amazon search shows that she was wrong, but at the time I didn't know any better and there wasn't much I could do about it. She sold me something that was called "artists tape" and said that it would work great and that it was acid free.  At least this woman has an idea of what's going on, so I took her up on her choice.  I also got some foamboard and went up to the counter.  That's when I noticed the sign that said "Minimum $20 purchase when using credit card".  DAMN!  Wouldn't that figure?  Who does that now a days?  Well, the tape was over $8, so I just got two of them because it was easier than going to the bank and coming back.  I think I'll try to return the one roll of tape and see if I can get that money back.

So I get home and gather all my materials and put grab my graphed out diagram I drew to be sure everything looked good and away I went.  I only needed at this moment one mat cut, but I cut two just in case.  Well it would only figure that of course, I've cut both mats incorrectly.  The opening was too long on the long side, and too short on the short side.  It was due to a stupid error on my part, and totally avoidable had I not been in such a hurry, but after 10 minutes of hanging my head I fixed the issue and got everything cut properly.  Mounted it all and I must say it came out GREAT!!!

Sorry that the photo quality isn't all that great.  It was taken by my Blackberry Bold 9700.  I'll have to take a proper picture of it later this evening when I get home.  Thanks for viewing!

3 comments:

  1. the trials and tribulations of a beginner framer =) love you

    ReplyDelete
  2. very nice. great job framing your photo!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Natalie and TheDude! Probably a bit more work than Lebowski would put into it, but then again he is one damn lazy dude. HAHA

    ReplyDelete