Matting and Framing

Johnboy2978

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I have a lot of images that I would like to matte and frame. I had been taking them to a local frame shop who would do the matte cutting, foam board cutting, glass cutting and custom cut a simple black metal frame (nielsen frame).
It seems that everytime I go there I get a different price, sometimes good, sometimes bad, so I decided to do as much of it as I could myself. I went to a hobby shop and got 32x40" matte board for $5 as well as foamboard same size and price and 16x20" glass for $5. I borrow my father-in-laws matte cutter and I do stain glass as well, so I cut my own glass. Doing it myself, for less than $5 I can matte, foam board, and cut the glass for an 8x10 image. My only dependency on the frame shop now is the Neilsen frame, and they just charged me $130 for 3 frames (just the frame and hardware to join it together - 18x9, 16x14 and 11x8).

Does anyone here know where I can order Neilsen frame molding in bulk so that I can say goodbye to the frame shop? I have found it pre-cut at places like dickblick.com but I want like 10 ft pieces so that it's cheaper.

Thanks for looking and reading.
 
thanks matt. I also found Artcity.com which is charging like $58 for the same order as above. I knew I was getting screwed. I need to open my own framing shop, there sure is a LOT of money being made in framing.
 
Matt, just so you know (and others) AmericanFrame.com is the cheapest of all that I found. DickBlick.com is about 40% higher and ArtCityFrame.com is a little more than DB.

Thanks for the tip. All of these resources beat the heck out of my local frame shop for exactly the same metal frame.
 
Cool, I'm glad to hear it's the cheapest. I've always used them, and we use them at work. Well, they are in Ohio, so shipping is cheap and speedy for me.
 
Anyone who is paying for a lot of matting should look into buying a good mat cutter. I figure that I am saving a minimum of $10 everytime I cut my own mat. That adds up quick.
 
I cut my own mats/foamcore, and buy frames and plexiglass from American Frame. It's not only about saving money, but I also enjoy cutting the mats. I feel a bit more connected to the print hanging on my wall, or the print I'm selling.
 
anybody got any clues about how to do this in europe, and could you please explain to me what these materials you are using are? because it sounds nice and i would like to do the little diy myself as well. can't be that hard right? :D
 
Digital Matt said:
It's not only about saving money, but I also enjoy cutting the mats. I feel a bit more connected to the print hanging on my wall, or the print I'm selling.

same here. i do my own mats for my bw film stuff, and I almost care more about my print for doing it.
 
That's cool. Just seems like a lot of work to me. I assume you guys are doing your own developing? I can see how there would be a special attachment to the process since it feels a lot more like creating than sending off a digital file for printing. I didn't get into photography at all before digital so I never had the pleasure of doing it any other way.
 

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