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How Can You Frame a Piece of Art Without a Matt

Frugal Living: How To Frame Your Art on the Cheap

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(Image credit: Andrea Sparacio)

I never quite felt like a existent developed until I framed my first piece of fine art. All through college I pinned giant collages of unframed art to my walls like a life-size scrapbook. Mail-grad, I've slowly started framing my favorite pieces, both to make them more of a argument, and to protect them from dust and the cat. Custom framing is wicked expensive, so I scour austerity stores for well-made frames with drinking glass, and hitting upward my local art supply store for the residual of what I need to do my own custom framing.

Hither's one of the austerity-store frames I establish. Although the print looks overnice in this picture, up shut information technology'due south actually quite grainy and not worth saving. (Paradigm credit: Emil Evans)

What Yous Need

Materials

  • Pre- made frame (including glass)
  • Artwork
  • Acid-free mat newspaper cut to the same size as frame drinking glass (found at art supply stores)
  • Mat cutter (optional)
  • Acid-free artist's tape (institute at art supply stores)
  • Thumb tacks or small nails (if nails, a hammer)
  • Pigment or stain for your frame (optional)
  • Picture wire and 2 D-ring hangers (optional)
  • Kraft newspaper to encompass the back of the frame (optional)

Tools

  • Pliers
  • A-acto pocketknife
  • Screwdriver to adhere D-ring hangers (optional)

Instructions

1. Find a frame that fits your art. I have ii odd-size lithographs of spines past Metana Printing that I've been toting around for years in their original acid-free plastic because I couldn't find the correct size frames — custom framing is also expensive, and finding two identical odd-size frames at a thrift store is a shot in the dark. Happily, concluding month I finally constitute frames! Tucked away in the back of a austerity shop, I found two matching fake veneer frames that were slightly crush up, but both had intact glass and were framing art that is the same odd size as the spines I want to frame. At $14 for the pair, it was meant to exist.

Since my frame is mass-produced, information technology's backed with craft paper and foamcore (the white) held in with staples. I left the picture-wire attached since I'd only have to put it back on at the finish. (Epitome credit: Emil Evans)

2. To disassemble your frame, flip it over and inspect how information technology's assembled. Unremarkably, the concluding layer on the back is chocolate-brown kraft paper (just like most upholstered furniture has that blackness dust cloth to encompass up the inner workings). Remove this by either running an X-acto pocketknife forth the inside border of the frame or but tearing it out.

3. The next layer is ordinarily a slice of foam core board, paper-thin, or wood (if the frame is super onetime) held in identify with staples (newer) or tiny nails (older). Employ your pliers to gently pull all these out. If they're staples or bent nails, discard them. If they're old tiny nails that remain usable, feel free to reuse them at the cease, particularly since onetime frames with their original nails are super cool.

4. Finally, you tin tip or pull out the cream or wood, then whatever art is in the frame, so the drinking glass. Set up the glass and foam/wood aside, and recycle the fine art.

I painted my frames an ashy gray which picks up on colors found in the lithographs. (Prototype credit: Emil Evans)

5. If you want to pigment or restain your frame, now'southward the fourth dimension to do it. I primed and painted the false veneer a mellow, ashy grayness.

6. Clean that glass, and make clean information technology really really well, with any method you similar best. I usually become for dish soap and water to remove sticker gunk and dust, then a clean dishtowel followed past clean, crumpled newspaper to remove any remaining lint. Clothing gloves if yous're nervous about cutting yourself on the sharp edges.

seven. At this point, it's only important to keep fingerprints off one side — whichever side will impact your art — so feel costless to support the glass from the lesser like a stereotypical butler does a serving tray.

8. Let your glass dry out very thoroughly before assembling your framed fine art.

9. To mat your art, first launder and dry your easily, and then make certain you aren't bleeding from step 6 (which will ensue pure panic when you lot baste claret on the corner of your lithograph).

10. In that location are two ways to mat art: lay the art on top of the mat, or cutting a pigsty in the mat and place the art behind it. Since I think the latter is too stuffy for my taste, and especially since mat cutters are hard to use without damaging the mat, I opted for attaching my art to the superlative of the mat. (If you choose the 2d choice and you lot aren't keen on cutting the mat yourself, you can take your mat to a custom framing shop and have it custom cut. Most shops will practise this for a few dollars.)

(Paradigm credit: Emil Evans)

11. Center your fine art on the mat paper. A full general rule of pollex is to center the image horizontally but leave more room at the bottom of the art than at the meridian. I decided to leave near the same amount of room since I'm going to hang these higher up on the wall.

Since the artist's tape is white and therefore hard to see, I traced over information technology in red. (Image credit: Emil Evans)

12. Once your fine art is centered perfectly, use creative person'southward tape (represented in red considering it's white in existent life) to secure the pinnacle border. This record volition concord your art in place while yous adhere it on the back.

(Epitome credit: Emil Evans)

13. Flip your art upwards abroad from yous — the tape on the forepart acts equally a swivel — and add 2 long pieces to the back as shown. I don't put tape horizontally because it'due south too beefy and shows when you fold the fine art back downward.

(Image credit: Emil Evans)

14. Fold your fine art back downward and remove the artist's tape from the front. The long pieces of tape should agree your art without showing at the top.

15. Put it all together! Place the glass back in the frame — conscientious not to leave fingerprints — then lay in the art. Lay in the cream or forest and gently tack pushpins or minor nails into the frame to concur it in place. Employ more than you recall are necessary— at least i every half dozen inches.

Optional: If you want, cover the back again with newspaper. Utilise a sparse line of mucilage to attach kraft paper over the backside of the frame.

17. If your frame is missing its picture wire, spiral in two D-ring hangers on either side of the frame, equal distance from the top. (See epitome of the back of the original frame for an example). Twist flick-wire through both rings.

18. Clean whatsoever stay fingerprints off the front of your now-framed art, and you're ready to hang!

(Image credit: Emil Evans)

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Emil Evans

Contributor

Emil is a landscape nerd, explorer, and lover of aggressive cooking projects. She lives in Oakland, CA with an ever-growing collection of houseplants.

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