“Any idiot can put a frame on a picture and lots do.”
Picture framing is a funny industry. There’s no degree available, there’s no license required and the vast majority of the people working as picture framers haven’t had any formal training. They learned from their old boss, their parents or they were artists and they just made it up along the way because they needed their art framed. As a result, not a lot of framers working today have even the basic foundation of correct knowledge, nor have they kept current with developments in the industry, which has certainly evolved substantially in the last twenty years.
At FoR Fine Art we work tirelessly to insure that our knowledge and our techniques are as current and correct as possible. We insure that our framers attend at least one industry event every year to see the latest products available and to take classes offered by industry giants.
Improper materials and techniques can actually cause damage to your prized possessions and the sad thing is it’s the parts of the framing package that you can’t see in the completed piece that are potentially the most harmful. Improper adhesives, matting and mounting boards which cause acid burn, and glass without ultra violet filtering properties – all of these things can contribute to a framing package that harms your artwork rather than preserving it for future generations.
There’s no denying that custom framing is expensive. It’s labor intensive and it’s one of the few things left in our world that is truly custom. (After all, when’s the last time you had a suit, dress or draperies custom made?) If you’re going to pay to have something framed, why not pay to have it framed correctly?