Framing plan
The five material decisions for each piece, the questions to take to a framer, and what you ordered. This is the page you hand across a counter, or shop from.
The decisions sheet is essential once you are buying anything; the other two can wait. The decisions sheet is what makes two quotes comparable and what you hand across a counter. The questions checklist is worth printing before a visit. The orders table only matters once money has moved, and a reader who skips it loses the ability to date a later problem.
Decisions, piece by piece
One row per piece you are framing. Fill it in as you decide; a blank is a decision you have not made yet. The estimate column is yours to fill in from a quote or a shopping list, and a blank there counts as unknown rather than zero.
Questions for a framer
Tick each one when you have an answer you could repeat back, and write the answer beside it. The answer is the framer's; the record is yours.
What you ordered
One row per order placed, so a later problem has a date and a specification behind it. Amounts are yours to fill in; a blank is unknown.
How to use this sheet
- One row per piece you are framing. Not per frame, and not per shop visit.
- A blank is a decision you have not made. The estimate column treats a blank as unknown rather than zero, and the total says how many are missing, so the sheet can tell you how complete your plan is.
- Write materials, not adjectives. The selects are deliberately worded as what things are made of. If you find yourself wanting to type "archival", that is the moment to go back to The words.
- The questions sheet holds their answers, not yours. Tick a line when you have an answer you could repeat back, and write it in the framer's own words with the date.
- Print the questions before a visit. Standing at a counter trying to remember the list is how the list goes unasked.
The starter row is Priya Raman's letterpress print, invented: mid level, alpha cellulose board, ultraviolet-filtering glass, non-adhesive corners, the ready-made route, and a blank estimate because she has not priced it yet. It is deliberately a modest specification, because the piece is reprintable and a mid-level package on replaceable work is the right answer rather than a compromise. The questions checklist starts with every line unticked and one answer pre-filled, the Photographic Activity Test line, which is marked as not applicable when your setup says you have no photographs.
This sheet is your record of your decisions and of what a framer told you. It is not a quote, not a contract and not a specification anyone has agreed to until it is on their paperwork. The answers in the questions sheet are the framer's; the record is yours. Nothing here prices framing, because no price figures were published anywhere in the research behind this manual.