A common question when designing groupings of pictures is, “should the framing all be the same?” The answer I give is that it is a matter of personal aesthetics. I don’t think that it needs to be all the same, but I do like a common element to tie them all together. For instance using a white mat in all of the art, or having all black and white photography. So it all depends on what appeals to each persons eye. The grouping examples bellow all show varying styles.

These are not all the same, and hung more in a parlor style.

These groupings are all the same framing.

We get requests to frame sports items from time to time, it is also one of the most common phone calls for a price quote. Most often it is a team jersey to be put in a shadowbox. The cost for this can vary greatly depending mostly on how big the overall size is, what frame is picked, and the mat or mats chosen for the design. We have done small t-shirts from around $100 to large pieces around $600(and higher). On average the price for a standard jersey, like the one pictured bellow is around $300(without the special mat cuts), with the special mat cuts around $400.
Other sports items we have framed include (but are not limited to) golf clubs, golf balls, baseball bats, baseballs, banners, pieces of running tracks, and fishing lures.

My husband and I love this artist, David Hale. You can check out his wonderful art here. We recently bought this print from him and I framed it up for my husbands Christmas present. I used Guinea hen feathers around the image and a black mat as the inlay. I am in love with the unique and custom look it gave the piece.

Eco Care is an idea whose time has finally come… beautiful tabletop and wall frames that are entirely earth friendly. Eco Care products use only materials and components that have a high recycled content or come from renewable resources. The frame is made of 100% bamboo with water-based stains, the matting, packaging, and backing is also made of recycled paper. All the materials are recyclable. We are very excited to be able to offer these frames to our customers. There is a wide variety of finishes and sizes available. What you do today makes for a better world tomorrow. Come by to check them out!

I am always looking for new ways to display framed art. I noticed in the recent Pottery barn catalog this picture with the same finish frames all hung in a row with the sides touching. I love this idea! It creates an architectural feel in the room. This would make a great accent wall in a room. Or two rows of sepia toned family photos in a hall would look great especially if the top row had the bottoms of the frames lined up and the bottom row had the tops lined up. I might have to give that a try in my hallway at home. I will post pictures when its done to show how it worked out.

In an effort to “green” ourselves at the shop we have been doing a little research on supplies that are friendly to the earth and trying to reduce, reuse, and recycle as much as possible. We just got a line of new eco-friendly frames made out of bamboo, which are beautiful. We are also expecting a line of quality photo frames that are also made from bamboo, have a water based finish, and the packaging is 100% recyclable. I am looking forward to getting those in shortly. As the custom picture framing industry catches up to the greening trend I am hoping that there will be a lot more options available as far as style and finishes.
Here are some photos of the new bamboo frames.

a wide 2 1/4″ frame available in all three finishes

this is about 1 1/2″ wide also available in all three finishes

This one is my favorite with an inlay of the light wood available in both widths.

The first drawing for the gift certificate drawing was on June 28th! Congratulations to these winners:
Karen Norris won the first prize of a $100 gift certificate
Gladys Miller and Georgia Lord won the second place prizes of $50 gift certificates each.
Don’t worry if you did not win this months there are still two more drawings on July 26th and August 30th.

I try to get all of the furniture catalogs and home decorating magazines that I can to stay up to date on color and style trends. Recently I have noticed a lot of places are leaning their pictures against walls and book shelves. Like this one I saw in a Pottery Barn catalog recently. It is a very informal look, especially when paired with interesting objects.