Weakness

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Even in the weakest hour,

we find our strength.

Friends, comrades, lovers, the list goes on.

There is always a shoulder,

if you know where to look.

With Strength I Shall Survive

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With Strength I shall survive,

and survival gives me strength.

I hold my head up high

and know

Anything can be overcome now.

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Dancing With Faeries

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A little fun on a Saturday afternoon.  As the sun set, we let the back light work in our favor, and added some foreground light to fill in the details.

Reach to the Heavens

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I reach to the heavens

Gazing upward, arms outstretched

Aspiring to the heights, to greatness.

Though I am mortal,

That which I do, and create, and share

Both in construct and in deed

May live beyond my years

-should- they be truly great things.

 

At least for a while.

 

Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, California

(The photo links to the gallery where it, and other works are available.)

Framing and Matting

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Someone who bought one of my prints mentioned that they go to one of the local ‘art stores’ to have photos matted and framed, and my question was “Why?”

Whether it’s something that you took yourself, or bought, you absolutely want to make it shine as best it can, but the idea of spending $100 or more to have someone else do it seems rather silly to me.  It’s one thing if you’re putting objects in a shadowbox, or have something that’s a weird aspect ratio that requires something custom, or you spent $400 on a something that you want to have handled with kid gloves, but a “standard” aspect ratio photo, matted and framed, should cost at most $30-40 – and 80% of that is the cost of the frame.

Here’s the thing – for standard size prints (8×10, 11×14 etc) pre-cut mats can be readily bought at pretty much any local art supply store.  For purposes of numbers, we’ll talk about matting an 11×14 print.  Odd sizes require either hunting for pre-cut, or getting a $100 mat cutter, but that’s a discussion for another day…

At my local store, a pre-cut mat (again, 11×14 print, so we’re talking about a 16×20 frame) runs about $9.  On-line they’re even cheaper, but I tend to buy in bulk, so I can’t give good numbers on that.  The other things you’ll need are a frame, and a roll of good quality acid-free “hinging tissue” similar to this.  It’s super-thin, high-tack, and won’t eat the photo paper.  For frames, I recommend either watching for the sales, or even better, cast your lot at the local second-hand store.  I’ve found a ton of really nice (and interesting frames) at the one near my house in the $6 range – but it’s a roll of the dice.  I also invested in a tool that puts the little point thingies in the frames so I can replace any that are missing, or replace those gawd-awful staples that hurt my fingers.

But, matting – buying the stuff (particularly finding the ‘right’ frame) is actually harder than doing the work.  Start out with a clean surface, and lay the mat out flat.  Roughly center the photo on the backing,  and then close the window (the part with the cutout).  Now you can center the artwork in the window, and generally frame it how you like.  Your standard ‘window’ is about 1/4″ smaller in all dimensions than the intended work, so you have a fair amount of wiggle-room to get it looking nice.

 

 

Once you have the artwork centered, and good overlap, etc., comes the sneaky part.  Get a clean cloth (I use a kitchen towel) and a heavy-ish object that isn’t too large and place them on the art.  The cloth will protect from scratches, and the thing will keep it from shifting about when you open the mat back up.

 

 

And, with the mat open flat again, and your piece d’art securely located comes the not-so-tricky part…

Take a couple of pieces of that fancy hinging tissue – it’s about 1/2″ wide, so you’ll need somewhere between 3/4″ to 1″ long strips, and tack them on the underside of the photo, with the sticky-side up.  You really only need two pieces.  This is one of those cases where there can be too much of a good thing… and there are only two technical details to note at this point:  One, the tape should go near the top corners of the intended hanging direction, and two, the exposed part of the tape should roughly be the same length as the width of the tape.

 

 

And now, for the magic part.  Take two more strips of tape, and cover the exposed tape you made before sticky-side down.  The technical term for this is a “T-Hinge” because you’ve made two pieces of tape into the letter ‘T’.

Obvious terminology aside, the important part of what we’ve done here is that there is no tape on the surface of the print.  If you want to re-mat the photo later, you can just cut off the excess beyond the print and tape right over.  No harm, no foul.  That print should still be good for 100 years

 

 

And, voila!  A professionally matted photo, ready to stick in that fabulous frame that you found.