Some random thoughts. I have never sold anything smaller than 8x10". Folks like their photos large usually.
OTOH, I know there's a market for smallish framed things for bathrooms, hallways, or those areas of walls where you create a random "grid" out of a number of small frames. I just haven't managed to tap that one. IKEA frames are great, but fragile, with the odd one that falls apart almost immediately. The cheaper ones are made out of stapled particle wood with a thin vinyl overcoating. I like their minimalist look, but I have backup ones when I mount gallery exhibits. Contrary to advice you got, unmounted matted prints do sell. I have gone through collections at artisan events. Lots of folks wish to buy a print then get it framed in a style they prefer. Frames are very personal things and are chosen to go with the decor, rather than to complement the image. I chose to purchase a mat cutter early on and it has gotten a fair bit of use. I find that mats are one of the most expensive parts of framing, but they are easy to DIY and the mat board is fairly cheap. Plus most of my images were non-standard aspect ratios or sizes, so I couldn't just use the mat provide with the frame or buy an off-the-shelf one. A decent mat cutter can handle a full size 30x40" board. A current trend is to not hang frames, but rather arrange them on picture shelves that jut a few inches from the wall in parallel rows. The pictures simply sit on the shelf leaning back against the wall. That lets you change up the display frequently and avoid nails or fancy hanging systems. You can also lean unframed work, or images that have been face bonded to a simple flat board. Even gluing photos to foamcore is possible. Some art suppliers are hopelessly out-of-date with regard to aspect ratios. SLR format mat openings are standard practice at art places with any understanding of photography. Look around more. Look online. What is the connection between art and ukuleles? They almost seem like opposites. <zing!> On Fri, Jun 2, 2017 at 5:54 PM, Larry Colen <[email protected]> wrote: > One problem with not being an artist is that I don't know squat about > displaying and selling my photos. I tend to carry them around in an itoya > portfolio book updating the selection as I go. I was talking with some > friends who have a shop in town that sells art and ukuleles about them > trying to sell some of my photos. I've also thought that at some point I > should put together some pieces to show. > > Pat and Julie told me that you can't just sell prints, they need to be > mounted well enough that people can just hang them on the wall. > > Can people give me pointers to cost effective ways of going about this? I > tried stopping by the local art store, but most of my prints are 12x18 or > 4x6 and they simply don't have much that work with those form factors. > > > -- > Larry Colen [email protected] (postbox on min4est) http://red4est.com/lrc > > > -- > 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. -- -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.
