A framer, a ready-made frame, or doing it yourself
Three routes, priced on your own pieces. This chapter gives the questions that get a specification instead of a reassurance, reads an order form line by line, and separates the jobs that are safe at home from the ones that need a shop.
Start here Essentials
At minimum this chapter asks you to write one specification and take it somewhere. Everything marked Go deeper is optional on a first pass.
- Write the level and the five material decisions for one piece. They come from the five decisions (Framing plan).
- Take the question list to a framer. Or price the same specification as a ready-made frame plus a cut mat (What to ask).
- Read the order form against the decoder before you sign. It names the lines that are usually blank (Reading a framer's order form).
- Decide which steps you will do yourself. Work from the list of what is safe at home (What is safe at home).
Minimum time: about 30 minutes to write the specification, plus one visit. Done when: one piece has a route, a written specification, and either a quote you can compare or a shopping list you can buy.
1. The three routes Understand
Custom framing, a ready-made frame with a cut mat, or your own assembly. All three are legitimate, they are not ranked, and the way to choose between them is to price the same written specification three ways.
That last part is the whole method, and it is why this chapter comes after What "archival" means rather than before it. Two quotes for "frame this nicely" are not comparable. Two quotes for "100 percent cotton four-ply window and back mat, window 17 3/4 by 23 3/4, borders 3 and 3 1/2, paper hinges with starch paste, ultraviolet-filtering glass at 2.5 mm, barrier-layer backboard, sealed package, points not tabs, pads at the lower corners, dated label" are comparable to the dollar.
| Route | Where it is strongest | What you give up |
|---|---|---|
| Custom framer | Odd sizes, anything you cannot settle yourself, canvases, textiles, objects, anything needing a conservator's eye first | Cost, and control over materials unless you specify |
| Ready-made frame plus a cut mat | Standard sizes, replaceable work, quantity, anything you may rearrange later | Choice of size, and sometimes depth; you work inside what is stocked |
| Your own assembly | Control, cost per piece once you have a mat cutter, and a real understanding of the package | Time, and the jobs that need a shop anyway |
| A mix | The common answer: you measure, choose and cut the mat and attach the piece; the shop cuts the glazing and, if needed, chops and joins the moulding | Nothing much, which is why it is common |
On cost. This manual gives no price figures, because none were published anywhere in this research. What it gives instead is the specification that makes two quotes comparable, and the honest note that the single largest variable in a framing quote is usually the moulding, followed by the glazing, and that the board and the attachment, which matter most for the piece, are rarely where the money goes.
One thing that is not a route. A preservation center's household guide puts it plainly: picture framing professionals may be under high pressure to make a sale, so it is a good idea to have a basic understanding of acceptable conservation framing materials and techniques before talking to a framer, so that you know what to ask for. That is not a warning about framers. It is a description of what a counter is.
2. What to ask a framer
A preservation center publishes the best question list in this research, in a two-page guide written for households, and this manual's list is built on it. Four of its headings, verbatim in substance: how will my artwork be secured inside the frame, and will the method of attachment cause any permanent changes to my object; what is the mat made of; what kind of backing boards will be used; and how much ultraviolet protection does the glazing offer.
The full list, grouped, lives in the framing plan so you can tick it off and write the answers beside it. The answer is the framer's; the record is yours. What each answer tells you:
| Ask | A good answer sounds like | What a vague answer tells you |
|---|---|---|
| How will it be attached, and can that be undone? | "Japanese paper hinges with starch paste" or "non-adhesive corners" | "We mount it" usually means dry mounting, which is permanent in practice |
| Will it be attached to the back board rather than the window mat? | "The back board" | Hinging to the window mat is the thing a preservation center specifically warns about, because of tearing during future unframing |
| Will any self-adhesive tape touch the piece? | "No" | Anything else is a reason to keep asking |
| What is the mat made of, and is it lignin free? | "100 percent cotton" or "alpha cellulose, lignin free" | "Acid free" alone; the same center warns that mats sold as archival and acid free may still contain lignin, so look for lignin free |
| Buffered or unbuffered, and why that one for this piece? | A reason tied to the medium | No view at all, on a photograph, is worth noticing |
| Has the board passed the Photographic Activity Test? (photographs) | "Yes, here is the supplier's sheet" | Anything that is not a yes or a no |
| What backing boards will be used, and is any of it foam board against the piece? | Named materials | A preservation center lists foam boards, lignin-containing mat boards, kraft paper, non-archival tapes and adhesive transfer gum as things used in the majority of frame shops |
| How much ultraviolet does the glazing filter, over which wavelengths? | "99 percent, 300 to 380 nanometres" | "UV glass" with no number. The trade threshold for the label is 97 percent over that band |
| What holds the piece off the glazing, and how much space is there? | A mat thickness or a spacer depth | Silence; this is the one thing every publisher agrees on |
| Is the rabbet deep enough for the whole package? | A number | "It'll be fine" |
| How will the back be secured, and will there be pads at the lower corners? | "Points, with pads" | Flexible tabs, which the trade specification rules out at its top level |
| Will the back carry a dated label? | "Yes" | Nothing serious, but it is a good sign when the answer is yes without prompting |
| Does anything here need a conservator first? | A view, either way | The Guild's own document says any restoration or conservation treatment should be carried out by a professional conservator before framing |
One more thing the same preservation center says, which is worth hearing from a conservation body rather than from a shop: the most expensive glazing choice may not offer more protection than the most basic ultraviolet-protectant glass. That is a good sentence to have in your pocket at a counter.
3. Reading the order form
A work order is a specification written in shop shorthand, and most of the decisions in this manual appear on it as two or three words. Reading a framer's order form is an annotated fictional work order, line by line: what each entry commits the framer to, which lines are usually silent, and what to write in before you sign.
The short version of what to look for. The moulding line is a catalogue number and a width, and it is where most of the price is. The mat line is a color name and a code, and the code is the thing to ask about, because the color name says nothing about the fiber. The glazing line is a product name, and it should carry a percentage. The mount or fitting line is where the attachment hides, often as a single word. And two lines are usually missing altogether: what the backing board is, and whether the package is sealed. Those are the two to write in by hand.
Keep your copy. A dated specification is what makes a later conversation possible, and it is the paperwork an insurer or an appraiser would want alongside the piece.
This manual does not price framing, does not recommend a framer, a shop or a product, and does not teach glass cutting, acrylic sawing or moulding work. Named makers appear only as the source of their own published figures. A piece that needs treatment goes to a conservator before any framer sees it, which the trade specification states as a rule.
4. The ready-made route
Working inside stocked sizes on purpose is a real method, not a fallback. One marketplace course teaches nothing else and says so plainly, on the grounds that professional framing is expensive.
The method is to run the chain backwards. Instead of sheet to window to mat outside to frame, you start at a frame size you can buy and let the borders take up the difference. The nearest ready-made size does the arithmetic: give it your outside size and your sheet, and it returns the nearest stocked frame above and below, and the borders that result.
Three things to get right.
Cut the mat to suit the frame, not the frame to suit the mat. That is the whole inversion. A standard mat sold with a standard frame often has a smaller window than you want, which is why a maker's own size page notes that most off-the-shelf frames with mats have a smaller window than its figures.
Mind the nominal-against-actual clearance. A frame sold as 16 by 20 has a rabbet about 16 1/8 by 20 1/8. Cut the glazing and boards to 16 by 20. Nominal against actual has the reason.
Check the depth before you buy. This is where the route fails most often. A thin ready-made frame may not take a mat, a back mat, a backing board and glazing together, and a conservation institute names clip-together metal frames as often too shallow for all three.
One strong argument for the route, from a conservation institute rather than from a shop: where a collection consists of numerous works, storing them in mats cut to standard sizes allows the use of standard-sized frames for exhibition. Pick two or three outside sizes, cut every mat to one of them, and the pieces become interchangeable on the wall and in storage. Arranging pictures gets much easier too.
5. What is safe at home, and what is not
This manual draws the line in a specific place, and it draws it on hazard rather than on skill.
| Safe at home | Not taught here | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Measuring, and deciding every size | Cutting glass | Scoring and snapping glass produces edges that cut and shards that travel. Buy it cut to size, or have the framer cut it |
| Choosing board and specifying materials | Scoring and sawing acrylic | Power sawing plastics needs the right blade, feed rate and eye protection, and it is a shop job |
| Cutting a window with a hand mat cutter | Cutting and joining moulding | Mitre accuracy needs a chopper or a good saw and a bench; a shop chops and joins for a fee that is often less than the tool |
| Hinging or cornering a piece | Removing old mounts, lifting tape, unsticking art | These are treatments. The first attempt is usually the one that cannot be undone |
| Fitting a package into a bought frame | Restoring or regilding a frame | A conservator's subject; dusting an ornate frame alone can scratch its finish |
| Sealing a package | Stretching or re-stretching canvas | Needs a bench and tools, and keying out a slack canvas is a trained paintings-conservator procedure |
| Fitting hanging hardware | Anything structural, electrical, or into a wall that may hold lead paint or asbestos without checking | Different trades, and Hanging it covers what to check |
The one thing to have a shop do even when the rest is yours: cut the glazing. Give the shop the size, and keep the offcut knowledge to yourself. It is cheap, it is accurate, and it removes the only genuinely dangerous step from a home assembly.
Impact-rated eye protection with side shields, which is what the federal workplace rule requires where there is a flying-object hazard. Gloves. Broken glass is not handled with bare hands; one institutional procedure says to collect it with appropriate tools into a sturdy cardboard box that will not weigh more than 40 pounds when full, sealed with tape and labelled. Keep children and pets out of the room until the floor has been gone over twice.
Go deeper 6. Credentials, and what they tell you
Two credentials exist and a reader may see either after a framer's name.
The US association's Certified Picture Framer is a three-and-a-half hour written examination, open to framers with at least a year of hands-on experience in retail or wholesale framing, available in imperial or metric, and sat at the association's convention or online with a proctor. Its Master Certified Picture Framer requires five years as a professional framer, a passed written exam and a recertification course, and is assessed practically: four framed pieces submitted in advance, a canvas, a print, a textile and an object, which examiners take apart and score, plus timed work on site. Both recertify on a four-year cycle. The association's page states that the master credential assesses preservation framing specifically, and publishes no count of how many hold it.
The UK trade body's Guild Certified Framer is a one-to-one practical examination of about two hours with practice time beforehand, plus a written element drawn from a question bank, with three pieces prepared in advance to stated specifications: fabric art, art on canvas, and art on paper framed with a double mount of a named aperture and border sizes, ruled lines drawn with a traditional ruling pen. An advanced version adds three specialist modules, in textile framing, mount design and function, and conservation framing, each examined in the same way.
What a credential tells you: that someone has demonstrated bench competence against a published task list. What it does not tell you: what materials this particular job will use, which is what your questions are for. A certified framer who answers "acid free" and an uncertified one who answers "alpha cellulose, lignin free, and the board has passed the test" have told you very different things. Use the questions.
A second quote, compared. If you are getting two, take the same written specification to both and ask each to price it line by line. Where they differ, ask why; the answers are usually about the moulding and occasionally about something you had not considered, such as a shallow rabbet needing a build-up. Where one has quietly substituted a material, you will see it, which is the point of writing it down.
7. See it See it
Priya Raman prices one specification three ways. Her letterpress print is 18 by 24 inches, reprintable, and she has a tape measure, a hammer and a level. Known: the mat outside size she wants is 23 3/4 by 30 1/4, which is not stocked, and the nearest stocked frame above it is 26 by 32. Assumed: that she can cut a window herself, which she has not done before. Open: whether a 26 by 32 frame with four-inch borders looks right in her hallway, which only standing in the hallway settles. Route one, custom: the exact size, her specification, one quote. Route two, ready-made: a 26 by 32 frame off the shelf, a mat cut to her window by the same shop, glazing already in the frame. Route three, mixed: the same frame, a mat she cuts herself with a borrowed cutter. She prices all three against the same eight-line specification and finds the second and third differ mostly by the price of the mat cutter, which she does not own. She takes route two, and notes in the plan that if she frames three more pieces the cutter pays for itself.
- What's Behind Your Frame?, a preservation center: the question list this chapter is built on, two pages, written for households.
- Matting and framing for works on paper and photographs, the same center: the full specification behind the questions, including the list of materials used in the majority of frame shops that it tells you not to accept.
- Certification, the US trade association: what the two credentials actually require, in its own words.
- Designing mats for standard size frames, a framing tool maker: the ready-made route worked through, including what to do when the proportions are not ideal.
8. Practice Practice
Minimum: one written specification and one quote or shopping list. Time: about an hour, including a visit. Materials: your framing plan, the question list printed, and a pen.
- Write the specification for one piece in the framing plan. Level, board, borders, glazing, attachment, backing, sealing. Eight lines or so.
- Print the question list from the same page and take it with you. Writing the answers down while you stand there is the part that makes the visit worth something.
- Get the same specification priced a second way. A second shop, or a ready-made frame plus a cut mat, or the parts for your own assembly.
- Read the order form against the decoder before signing. Write in the two lines that are usually missing: the backing board, and whether the package is sealed.
- Price the home route properly (Go deeper; optional). A hand mat cutter, a straight edge, a bone folder, corners or hinge materials, and glazing cut by a shop. Write the total beside the two quotes; for one piece it rarely wins, and for ten it usually does.
9. Your pictures Your pictures
10. Check your work Check your work
Criteria
- One written specification exists, in materials and methods, before any quote was asked for.
- The same specification was priced at least twice.
- The question list has answers written beside it, in the framer's words.
- The order form names the backing board and says whether the package is sealed.
- Anything needing a conservator was identified before a framer saw it.
Worked example
Hal Brewer (fictional) does it in the other order and it works out. He takes the watercolor to a framer first, with no specification, and the framer looks at the tape and the brown line and says: a conservator before anything else, and here is one. That is a good framer, and Hal could not have known in advance. He comes back six weeks later with the piece and an eight-line specification, and the quote is itemized against it. The two lines he writes in by hand are the backing board and the sealed package, neither of which was on the form. The question list adds one answer he would not have got otherwise: the shop's cotton board is unbuffered as standard, which he did not need for a watercolor but which told him the shop knew why he might ask.
Common mistakes
- Asking for a quote before writing a specification. You get a price for an unknown package, and nothing to compare it with.
- Comparing two quotes that describe different packages. The cheaper one is usually cheaper for a reason that is on the form.
- Treating a credential as an answer. It tells you about bench competence, not about this job's materials.
- Buying a ready-made frame without checking the rabbet depth. The commonest failure in the whole route.
- Trying to cut glass at home to save a small amount. It is the one step this manual asks you to buy.
What is still unresolved
- Which wall the finished piece can hang on: Where it can hang.
- What it will weigh and what will hold it: Weight and hardware.
- What any of it costs, which this manual does not say because nothing was published.
- Whether a piece needs treatment: a conservator, before the framer.