Framing & Mounting Your Photos

I often visit friends, relatives and customers and see out of
the corner of my eye un-mounted photographs laying on the
sideboard or propped up against the kitchen cabinets. And often
they are very good shots.

What a shame that they are not presented more thoughtfully -
making a memorable photograph a visual masterpiece which will be
passed down the generations.

Framing and Mounting is a specialist but significant part of our
business.

 Mounting a Photograph or Watercolour Many schools photographs
come presented in cardboard mounts. These are the minimum in
transforming a piece of paper into a memorable keepsake.

That photograph can then be put into a frame - with or without
the mount and placed on the sideboard in the lounge - or hung on
the wall.

In general a mount enhances the photo.

We stock a range of mount boards which can be cut using a
special machine to fit around a photograph - or indeed a
watercolour - to enhance its appearance. It is conventional to
mount a watercolour in cream card, but we have a whole variety
of colours, which can be selected to bring out a particular
colour in the image or to match the décor of the hanging
environment.

 Framing the Photograph or Watercolour A frame is cut to fit
around the mount and either clear or non-reflective glass cut to
size and the whole assembly fitted together and sealed.

We stock in excess of 50 frame moulding that we use to make
frames. But we have access to over 2000 different mouldings,
which come in all colours and textures.

An antique canvas must be treated quite separately from a black
and white photo or a group photograph taken at an evening event.

 Framing Canvasses Oil or Acrylic paintings which are canvas
based require a quite different treatment.

The canvas must be 'stretched' before framing. This is done by
cutting stretcher bars from mature wood. The stretchers must be
of the right length to fit the canvas and follow the style of
presentation required by the customer.

For example, it is a modern style to stretch the canvas such
that the visible image continues around the edge of the canvas
stretchers. These paintings do not require a frame; they are
hung flat on the wall.

More conventionally the image covers only the front surface of
the stretched canvas and the complete stretched assembly is
framed using conventional framing techniques.

The canvas image is stretched over the assembled stretchers and
then small wedges tapped into carefully cut slots at the rear of
the frame to stretch the canvas a little further and tension it
up.

Oil and acrylic paintings never have glass in front of the
image! In a hot environment the paint will melt into the glass
with disastrous results! 

 Framing Fabrics We are often asked to frame thin silk or cotton
souvenirs brought back from Asian or African holidays.

Such fabrics are a challenge because of their fragility. Using
stretchers is generally unwise as the force of stretching might
rip the material - to the dismay of the customer. Best to
stretch the fabric gently over a board or stretcher assembly
using glue to keep the material in place.

 Specialist Framing We have been asked to frame all sorts of
things from a military hat to porcelain fragments.

These items often require a Box Frame, one that contains a lot
of space!

We insert small specialist mouldings - called slips - behind the
glass and the backing board to give the framing depth. Thus
objects of considerable size can be placed within the 'box'.

 Framing for Antiquity The materials that we use for mounting
and framing are selected to be acid and alkaline free and the
glues we use are chemically stable. While we would not claim
that our framing will last for centuries, it should be durable
and avoid long term discolouration.