On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 8:29 PM, Ed Keeney <[email protected]> wrote: > > Now that the latest PDML book has been published (and it looks great; > mine was ordered today), I have a question for the masses. > > In 2010 my print was hung in the DANK haus gallery with many of the > other entries. I still have that print hanging on my wall here at > home. Last year, I had my entry printed, mounted and framed by MPIX. > They did a really nice job. > > This year I was thinking of handling the matting and framing myself. > Nothing fancy or out of the ordinary, but possibly working with my > local Blicks to get it together. I am thinking of going 16x20 for the > print with a 2" border for the mat. This would make the frame 20x24.
I'd go for 2.5" to 3.5" mat border for a print that large. I've been printing a lot of 13"x19.5" images and mounting them in the Ikea Ribba 19.75"x27.5" frame. The mat's border is about 3.25" on 3 sides and 4-something inches at the bottom. You shouldn't crowd the print into a too-small frame with a too-narrow mat. It doesn't look good. Wander around an art gallery with a small tape-rule and check them out to see what they do. > I have a ton of questions. But I think I can work out most of them > with the team at Blicks. > > For those who do their own matting and framing, is it worth the > effort? I'm thinking if this works out well, I might print, frame and > hang more shots. Is there a simple step-by-step process you follow? > > To start with, my local Craigslist has 2 Logan mat cutters listed for > around $50 so the initial investment shouldn't be too much. I'll need > the print, the mat and then the frame itself (this is probably the > largest expense). Overall, I'm expecting it to be less than the cost > of getting it printed and framed somewhere else. > > What do you think? > > Thanks! > Ed > http://picasaweb.google.com/ewkphoto > http://www.flickr.com/photos/edkeeney/ I think it's worth it as long as you have a good source of cheap frames, sheet mat board and time. And you are really picky about how your finished mounted prints look. And you are planning to do a number of them over time. I bought a board-mounted Logan mat cutter some years back that takes a 40" mat board. 32"x40" is a standard size sheet and you need to be able to cut these down to size. It was about $150 or so new. It comes with an instructional DVD and you can also see the videos on Youtube. And Paul: I'm a total klutz but I still manage to cut good mats. I figure it's all worth it because raw board is about $7 a sheet, from which I get two mats, but professionally cut mats at that size are like $30 each. Plus I like the more unusual black-core mat boards that yield a nice black line around the print. I have to special-order those mat boards. Done right it gives the impression of a double mat. -- -bmw -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
