Category: Needle Arts

As we look back at the past year, a lot of emotions bubble up, and the strongest one is gratitude.

Thank you Red Wing Framing customers for making us essential.

The past year, that word “essential” has taken on new meanings. It seems to get tacked on to just about everything these days! Essential workers, essential businesses, essential services, essential…custom framing?

Yup.

Dear customer, friend, by allowing us to frame, preserve, restore, and enhance your essentials, you have made us essential. We have seen quite an uptick in family mementos, treasured photographs, personal crafts, stitchery and needle arts, children’s art, sports memorabilia, spiritual art and icons, lots of personal and collective historical figures and items, political posters, and “saved” thrift store artworks.

So thank you. You are 100% essential to us. Our hearts are full, our shop is bustling, and we are proudly soldiering on as an essential preserver of personal, collective, and public essentials! Make an appointment with us today, to preserve and display YOUR treasures.

A few favorites from our crew…

Angelic counted cross-stitch.

Stitchery! Valerie says, “There is something about stitching that is very comforting to me. It is one of my own personal passions and I was able to get some great stitching in this last year. It has been a great joy to see how others have stitched through the COVID year as well. Our personal creative passions help to slow down the craziness of life and leave riches for generations to enjoy. Let’s keep creating!”

Still life floral, oil on board.

Florals! Clare says, “One of my favorite quotes is by Lady Bird Johnson, ‘Where flowers bloom, so does hope.’ This past year, hope has been in great need and too short supply for many folks, so it makes sense that people want to be surrounded by the simple and timeless beauty of nature. Flowers don’t care about the pandemic or about politics. They just keep delivering their elegance, grace, and steadfastness. Flowers bring hope of renewal, and they’ll always look great in a frame on the wall facing your Zoom webcam!”

“Live Long and Prosper” puzzle.

Puzzles! John says, “Puzzles have boomed in the pandemic era, and we’ve had a lot of fun seeing what our customers have put together. Pandemic puzzles will represent various memories of these times. They invoke a sense of comfort and maybe even exemplify a “job well done” while one has waited to go back to his or her job. Or maybe a puzzle is just a puzzle, too!”

 

 

In 2019, we framed and preserved an influx of antiquated artworks, thrift store treasures, historical relics, and found family heirlooms and photos. So we are starting the New Year quite inspired by our customers’ “old is new” projects and we hope to see this trend continue. Nothing wrong with brand-spanking-new, but with so much societal focus on “reduce, reuse, recycle,” we’d love to motivate YOU to have some framing fun your “old” finds.

We have a few customers who are topnotch treasure hunters and well versed in the art of “lost art.” They’ll find old, discarded, and forgotten artworks in secondhand and antique stores as well as online (Etsy, Ebay, etc.). Originals, prints, etchings, drawings, paintings, needle works…the variety of media is endless, and the conditions of the artworks vary. The name of our game is both preservation and presentation—we prepare the art to be displayed in a fittingly aesthetic manner and ensure it will be protected for many ensuing years of enjoyment. Old family pieces and “lost and found” childhood artworks have also been high on the frame-worthy list. Check out a few of our favorite “up-cycled” artworks. Its amazing what a fresh frame and mat can do!

Another facet of the “old is new” movement is the restoration of old family photos. Our digital experts can revitalize, refresh, and digitally repair your old photos. Need some extra prints of Great Aunt June for your cousins? And yikes…does that photo have an old coffee stain across Grandma’s brow? We can fix that, and we can print that! We are also experts at caring for original photographs. The science behind preserving old photographs is special and extensive, and our certified professionals will help you make the right choices with materials and mounting processes to ensure safekeeping of your photographic heirlooms. The safest place for your old photos, if not in an acid-free album in the dark, is in a frame with UV glass and archival materials.

This photo had fade marks, poor color, and insect excrement. Our digital team brought the image back to life.

Great Grandpa’s military portrait had faded and torn. We proudly restored this photo and provided prints for the extended family.

The old photo on the left had tears, fading, and other flaws that we touched out before printing for our customer.

So what do you have under the bed in that old “family box” that might be worth displaying? How about that drawing your daughter did in 8th grade, or Great Aunt June’s cross-stitch sampler? Come across a painting at the Salvation Army that warrants a revival?

Art is all around us, and we challenge YOU to make the old new in 2020.

What is it that makes something worthy of framing? Should it be a work from a notable artist? Should it cost X amount of dollars? Should it be historically significant?

Sure! In May 2018, the Peggy and David Rockefeller family will auction 600 million dollars worth of original works by artists such as Monet, Renoir, and Picasso in New York City, USA. These pieces surely fit all of the above criteria, and we’d certainly be proud to frame the work of such masters.

Son’s Stormtrooper Mask

Grandmother’s Needlepoint

In the business world, perceived value is defined as “the worth a customer ascribes to a product or service.” In our business world, perceived value can be used to describe the non-monetary value a customer ascribes to the artwork or object considered for framing. Our very proudest projects are those that connect to our customers’ storiesyour hearts, your histories, your lives and families, your memories, your hopes.

Travel Postcard

So what if your project is just something your son drew in kindergarten class, or, just this old needlepoint that your grandmother stitched, or just some picture you found and liked? (Yah, we hear the word “just” a lot.)

Frame-worthy? ABSOLUTELY!

Puppy Paw

Van Gogh Print

Literally, JUST Wrapping Paper! Why not?

There is no price one can use to describe the worth of such projects. What is the value to you or your son who sees his professionally displayed artwork and is encouraged to continue creative and educational endeavors? What is the value of preserving your grandmother’s stitchery, passed down through generations of family who will remember grandma’s name and story? And what if its “Just some picture you liked”…well, there is a reason it drew a connection, and doesn’t that connection merit saving? The motives to frame something don’t have to be deep or philosophical, but the impacts of these projects can be truly priceless.

You have brought us your project to frame. We are honored to learn and share in your story. Fine custom framing is our heart and our story, and we are equally privileged to work with your $66 million Van Gough or your late pup’s paw print in plaster. If it matters to you, it matters to us.

 

So, is it frame-worthy?

Yes, and you don’t need to justify it.

Happy Holidays from Valerie, John, and Clare. We are grateful for your business and friendship, and look forward to seeing you soon! In the meantime, sing along…

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…my precious family memories beautifully preserved and ready for display.


On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…my sports fantasies framed!!


On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…a Tiffany style lamp and an exquisitely framed mirror to decorate my space.


On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…my priceless child’s artwork to remind me how special life can be.


On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…a beautiful Motawi art tile, handmade in Michigan. These tiles are mountable and framable, or simply ready to display on an easel.


On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…an acrylic art print by a local artist. Stop in to see what we have for sale, OR ask us to make you a custom #acrylicprint!


On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…my cell phone photos immortalized as art for my walls! We print ready to hang, high quality gallery wraps from your images, or choose your art online at www.fineartprintsondemand.com.


On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…my special mementos displayed so I can see them every day.


On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…original artwork. We have ready-to-hang pieces as well as original acrylic paintings, sculpture, and signed/numbered art prints for sale.


On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…a kitschy piece of artwork that brings me happy feelings, and reminds me that someone is thinking of me…


On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…some high quality ready-made frames that won’t fall apart, are backed by a quality guarantee, and will preserve my holiday photos.


On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…a fantastic gift certificate so I can have some FUN framing and printing with the ONLY #masterframer in Minnesota!


One of the most common questions we receive from customers during the design process is “Should I have a mat?” followed by, “How much mat will show?”

The answers depend on several factors, including the type and size of the artwork, archival and mounting requirements, current trends, and of course, customer preference. Our design team, led by Master Certified Picture Framer Valerie Becker, is experienced in crafting the perfect mat design for each custom project.

Some artwork requires matting so that it may be properly mounted for museum quality preservation within a frame (yes, we do that). Delicate artworks with holes, torn edges, or unsightly borders may look incomplete without matting. Art prints with wide paper borders may be improved with a single or double mat. Sometimes a mat is unnecessary, even being a detriment to design. This sweet needlework for example was completed with a border that served the framing composition perfectly without a mat.

According to industry expert Chris Paschke of Designs Ink, professional framers and designers typically follow proportion and ratio guidelines such as maintaining mat margins that are wider than the width of a frame, avoiding “stripes” by using wider mat margins and by varying widths of extra mats and art borders, and ensuring “breathing room” for matted artwork (2001). Paschke suggests that contemporary designs demonstrate wider mat dimensions

The first image below represents a “gallery style,” with a wide and thick white mat—plenty of breathing room for the little fox. To make more sense of this concept, consider the wide mat as a wall in a room with the fox image hung on the wall. Would you look first at the plain wall, or the fox? A little Photoshop magic shows the fox again with a thin mat. Although the image is larger, the thin mat and frame start to look “stripe-y” which can be distracting to the eye and add a subtle confusion.

 

One alternative to the “wider mat” guideline is when a piece of artwork is float mounted. This type of design is characterized by an artwork that sits on top of, rather than under, a mat. In these designs, it is standard practice to maintain a small mat margin as seen to the left in this pastel by a customer’s little granddaughter.

Extra mats and specialized fabric mats use color and texture to enhance the framing design. The print below by Andy Warhol is matted with bright base color that accentuates the artwork’s “Pink Lips.” The dramatic blue suede mat atop the ship draws the eye to the artwork by gently contrasting the art’s highlights.

The most important rule of matting, however, is that there are no hard and fast rules. The overall goal of framing is to enhance the artwork, and to draw the eye to the artwork or object(s) being framed. Much discretion on how that is done is left to the eye of the designer(s). As Paschke notes, “Some framers have a natural eye for identifying a design that fits, and this is often why some designs appear much more successful than others” (2001). Experience, training, and a discerning eye for aesthetics is a large part of the formula for “right” matting. (We’ve got those covered.)

We are happy and excited to compose your project with you, and we guarantee our designs. Stop in or call to schedule an appointment to work with MCPF Valerie and her team!

References

Paschke, C. A. (2001, June). The essence of design: Proportion. Retrieved April 30, 2017, from DIP Online website: http://www.designsinkart.com/library/D-EssenceofDesignProportion200106.htm

 

“A hundred thousand welcomes” is the English translation of this Gaelic salutation. This cross-stitch was laced over an archival board, matted, and framed with a perfectly patterned moulding. These projects showcase the time, talent, and creativity of needle artists, and we are experts at helping our customers achieve their finished piece. I wonder how one might express “a hundred thousand stitches”?

 

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