Yesterday I made frames for three paintings so I can display them in a show sponsored by Poulsbo Artist League, of which I’m a member. Framing can be very expensive if you use a commercial framing shop, so most artists I know use a number of workarounds. In the past, I’ve re-used frames from cheap art I bought at Goodwill, or bought the rock-bottom frames at JoAnn’s.

Recently, however, I was given a whole set of framing supplies by a woman whose husband was a watercolor painter before he died eight years ago. She’s finally cleaning his stuff out of the garage, and offered them to me if I would share them with the members of Poulsbo Artist League, which I’ve done.

So I have many lengths of wood frame stock and a machine to press the special staples into the corners. In my wood shop, I cut the frame pieces to length, then I join them together using the framing machine. I also have a large supply of glass, which I’m learning to cut to size for each frame. Then I use a mat cutting tool which helps me cut clean openings in the mat to highlight the art work. Here are the three paintings I framed up. In the next two weeks, I have two more group shows to enter, so I’ll be framing up eight more pieces of art.

It’s amazing how framing a painting makes it look more professional and complete. A well-chosen mat makes the painting pop right out, and the frame sets it off on the wall. Just framing my paintings makes them look much better to my eye!