a note on framing

So, a note on custom framing.  

As any of you craft store regulars will know, there is a perpetual sale on custom framing – 50% off, 60% off.  Which perplexes us, as these sales do; why don’t you just reduce the everyday price by 50%?  Which also reminds us, how expensive custom framing is. 

As you regulars are also aware, there is always a coupon.

I don’t know about you, but I always come out of a craft store feeling like I’ve won the deal.  Yes, you have given me this blank canvas and it cost me $5.99 (40% off because I’ve brought my coupon*).  But, do you know how many hours of fun I've just bought for 5.99!!??

An alternative to custom framing is to go piecemeal.  Buy the frame.  Have them cut the mat.  Then, you can even have them cover the back with dust paper and add a backing wire for a few bucks.**  And it looks just like a custom frame job.

A few weeks ago, I decided to frame one of my own pieces of art, which I rarely do.  I was struggling a little in deciding with the price of the frame – a poster frame vs. a real frame.  I went with the more expensive option, because I was picturing a certain style of mat which would not fit in a poster frame.  Perhaps as other makers of things can sympathize, sometimes we downplay the value of these things.  Because we could easily and happily make more.  But, my mom reminds me of the time it took to make (and that’s the value in art, of course, because the supplies--in my case anyway--are a pittance). I realize that the manner in which something is framed is a way to indicate its worth.

Maybe, or maybe not, related… I struggle with the idea of dressing up for Church.  God loves us anyway.  God sees hearts.  God loves the poor.  Why are we bothering with frills?  Well, sometimes a button up shirt is a way to show respect—for the occasion, for others.  Cleanliness shows respect for others.  We get dressed up for certain human occasions.  And if we get dressed up for certain human functions, why not Church?  Okay.

Hanging this framed piece.  Into drywall.  I was introduced to a type of Monkey Gorilla hook that you just use your hands to insert—very appealing.  I like the concept, but it didn’t work in this case because of some more solid wall behind the drywall not allowing enough room to insert the hook.  Solid wall, always foiling framing plans.

Next day, I locate a 50-lb. hook.  I’m not sure of the weight of the framed art, but I want to be safe.   This option requires a stud-finder: amazing invention. 

Trusting the locator: a lot hangs on this.

With the money I’ve put into matting, framing, backing this work of art…I want to know it will hold.

And I hang it.

I could scoot the ottoman sofa seat below it, to cushion a fall.  That would change the sequence of the fall, but would not prevent the glass from cracking.  So, I don’t.

And then, it hangs for a few minutes.  
And then, it hangs for a day.  
In a few weeks, it will become part of the furniture, 
part of the background. 

The Picture that has always been there. 

And yet, that tenuous moment when it first was hung.

  

What gives a thing worth?

Is it how we frame it?

*Rather, I look up the coupon online and write down the coupon code.  At the checkout desk, I tell my sob story that I don’t have a smart phone or a printer.  And these artist-sympathizers kindly type the coupon code digits into their keypads.  Works of mercy.  

**~$2.50 at Hobby Lobby last I checked.  Up to ~$10 at A.C. Moore.  Never should have doubted you, HobLob.