Artists Frame Service

Last week we discussed frames with interesting origins, one of which is the sparkle frame that is made with the same material used in Italian fashion houses for companies like Gucci and Prada. Now, you can finally have framing on your walls to match your favorite handbag!!

Here’s a fashionable clutch bag from high-end designer VBH.

And here’s a sparkly fashion plate. We’ve framed everything from kid’s art to diplomas with the sparkle. Don’t just frame your art – celebrate it!

This comment was left on the previous post:

I went to buy a frame recently and learned that the moulding was $100.00 per foot. I have never experienced this kind of price for a frame before. The frame looked like ordinary dark wood. I wonder, why does frame moulding cost so much?  – Shades of Blue

Dear Shades of Blue,

Excellent question and congratulations for having great taste! We sell frames that range from as low as $1 a foot up to a whopping $460 a foot with many, many stops in between. Frame moulding doesn’t have to cost a lot, but when it does there are very good reasons why. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain some of them.

If you were looking at a wood frame around $100 a foot, it was probably something like this. Ordinary at first glance perhaps, but this is 3″ of solid North American walnut wood. This is a custom corner frame that will be made to order by frame artisans. Wood is naturally inconsistent, so first they will sort through their stock of walnut to find enough that matches in color and grain pattern to make your frame. Next they will mill the walnut into this graceful modern sloped shape. They join the four legs using traditional splined corners and then dye and polish the wood to a durable furniture finish. Your $100 a foot is getting you a one-of-a-kind American-made piece of craftsmanship that will last for generations. Extraordinary.

If you prefer an extraordinary bargain, there’s no harm in choosing this $12 a foot  frame instead. A soft poplar, this is still real wood from a real tree.  Although it comes to us already milled and stained, it still frames up beautifully.  

You probably don’t think much about the creation of picture frame mouldings, but we think about it A LOT. Here are some other fun examples of processes that frames go through before they go up on your walls:

SPARKLE

Bolts of glitter fabric go out to an Italian fashion house to be cut into strips the right width by the same pattern makers who work on Pradas and Guccis.

GOLD LEAF with a black panel

A worker in a factory in Spain walks 10 feet back and forth to paint in the black line on this frame. Really! I have seen it happen with my own two eyes. It takes a steady hand and a good pair of shoes.

LIZARDS

Little lizards are made in a mold and applied by hand just so. They also do butterflies and fish.