From Phone to Frame
Turn Your Smartphone Snaps into Stunning Art!
Amid the countless photos on your smart device, there must be a few gems worth displaying! Whether it's selfies, pet pics, family snaps, nature shots, flower photos, or travel memories, why not adorn your space with your art? Imagine your photos printed on long-lasting, fade-resistant fine art papers or stretched canvas, beautifully framed and matted to perfection.
The process is a simple team effort: You point, click, shoot, and send. Together, we design either in person or via email or text. We print, mount, and frame. You hang, smile, and enjoy!
How to and Tips for Success:
Set your device camera to capture large file sizes.
We will help you determine how large your photo can go and what sizes will ensure a high-quality image.
Set your device email to send the largest file size possible.
Email us at redwingframing@gmail.com with the subject: ATTN Phone to Frame.
Include your name, phone number, any preferences or wishes, and your preferred method of design (in person or online).
We're excited to help you transform your smartphone snaps from phone to frame!
Revive the Past: Make the Old New Again
As we reflect on 2019, we've been inspired by the influx of antiquated artworks, thrift store treasures, historical relics, and discovered family heirlooms that have found their way into our workshop. Starting the New Year, we're energized by our customers’ "old is new" projects and can't wait to see this trend continue. While brand-new pieces have their charm, in a world increasingly focused on "reduce, reuse, recycle," we're excited to motivate YOU to have some framing fun with your "old" treasures.
We have a few customers who are top-notch treasure hunters, masters in the art of unearthing "lost art." They find old, discarded, and forgotten artworks in secondhand shops, antique stores, and online platforms like Etsy and eBay. Originals, prints, etchings, drawings, paintings, needleworks—the variety is endless, and each piece carries its own history and character. Our mission is both preservation and presentation—we prepare the art to be displayed in a way that honors its aesthetic essence and ensures it will be protected for many years of enjoyment. Old family pieces and "lost and found" childhood artworks have also topped the frame-worthy list. It's amazing what a fresh frame and mat can do to rejuvenate these pieces!
Another facet of the "old is new" movement is the restoration of vintage family photos. Our digital experts can revitalize, refresh, and digitally repair your cherished photographs. Need extra prints of Great Aunt June for your cousins? Discovered a photo with an old coffee stain across Grandma’s smile? We can fix that, and we can print that! We're also specialists in caring for original photographs. Preserving old photos is both a science and an art, and our certified professionals will help you make the right choices with materials and mounting processes to ensure the safekeeping of your photographic heirlooms. The safest place for your old photos—if not tucked away in an acid-free album—is in a frame with UV-protective glass and archival materials.
So, what do you have stashed under the bed in that old family box that might be worth displaying? How about that drawing your daughter created in 8th grade, or Great Aunt June’s cross-stitch sampler? Maybe you've stumbled upon a painting at the Salvation Army that deserves a revival?
Art is all around us, and we challenge YOU to make the old new again.
We're here to help you transform your cherished finds into stunning displays that tell a story. Whether it's in person, via email, text, or video, let's bring new life to your treasured pieces together
Time lapse or worm hole?
This is a 'not quite' photo. Ideally I would have captured a nice blurred taillight of a few inches. But whatever. Nobody is perfect and either is this photograph.
The Physics of the Acrylic Print
Understanding the Unique Optical Properties of Acrylic Prints
Acrylic Prints have unique optical properties due to the physics of visible light traveling through the acrylic layer.
Visible light, or white light, bends slightly as it passes from one medium (air) to another medium (e.g., water). This bending is called light refraction.
Light refraction affects the observed image in two ways:
Magnification: The bent light causes the observed object to appear slightly magnified, enhancing the image's clarity. This principle underlies optical lens technology used in cameras and microscopes.
Color Vibrancy: The bent light also experiences a slight shift in the visible light spectrum, adding vibrancy to the observed colors.
A simplified example of this phenomenon can be seen with the Acrylic Print:
Incident light (ambient light all around us) bends slightly as it enters the acrylic layer.
The altered and shortened light path travels until the opaque barrier on the backside reflects the light back through the acrylic layer.
The light bends again and travels to the observer's eye.
This shorter travel distance creates a minuscule magnification, enhancing the image's clarity. This is why pencils in water appear slightly larger.
This slight magnification provides enhanced clarity, perceptible subconsciously to the human eye. In essence, the acrylic layer acts like a lens.
The opaque barrier's importance is highlighted here. If light leaks out through the back of the print, the clarity impact is lost because the light isn't reflected back to the eye.
A profile view of the Acrylic Print shows how its construction traps light within the acrylic layer and reflects it back to the observer.
Additionally, bending light causes a slight shift in the visible color spectrum. Each time light bends, the ultraviolet (UV) portion of the spectrum becomes more dominant, and the infrared (IR) portion less so. UV light has more energy and a shorter wavelength than IR light, making it more impactful.
Human eyes are particularly sensitive to UV light, making colors under a UV-dominant spectrum appear especially vibrant. This principle is why diamonds have luster—the light bends multiple times within the diamond, exaggerating the spectrum shift each time.
The result of these principles is an Acrylic Print image with exceptional clarity and luminance. It's truly striking to see firsthand.
On the topic of work, road trips & writer's block
Back After a Six-Month Hiatus
It has been almost six months to the day since this blog was last updated. This is inexcusable, so here are the excuses:
Busy Shop: The crush began in August (the last blog posting) and has been unrelenting ever since. The simple solution would have been to hire additional help to manage the workload, and to some extent, that was the solution. But as a business survivor of 2008 (remember Lehman Brothers?), you learn not to trust short-term business trends. So, you suck it up, put in long hours, and satisfy each and every customer.
RedWingDigital.com Success: Contributing to this work crush has been the success of new products at RedWingDigital.com. This new business model takes time to hammer out a smooth workflow. But if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Look for new products soon.
Vacation: January is supposed to be quiet, so we closed the shop for ten days and took a long road trip to the most remote part of the United States we could find. However, this January was the busiest January ever, even with ten days removed from the calendar. It's not fair to have a customer wait for my vacation, so it meant even longer days once we returned.
Writer's Block: This stuff doesn't write itself, especially when you're tired and have convinced yourself you have writer's block.
That being said, I promise not to allow such a break in the blog pattern to ever occur again.
The 1st Half of 2011
Reflecting on the First Half of the Year
The end of June marks the conclusion of the first half of the year. Last year was a good one, and so far, this year is ahead of last year. The business mix has evolved over the years, and we've been fortunate to be well-positioned to leverage these changes.
Red Wing Digital has been a significant time and financial investment. While there are still a few issues to resolve, the product inventory is now in place, and the product design details have been finalized. Orders have been increasing at a steady and realistic rate. We are currently addressing packaging and shipping issues and continuously seeking more production space.
This year marks our 10th year in business, and we've been tracking business patterns since the very beginning. Typically, the second half of the year is much busier than the first, for several reasons.
We owe our success to our loyal customers. Thank you for your continued support.
Reading outside weather
A Late Spring Brings Unexpected Benefits
This year, spring arrived 16-18 days later than usual. It was an especially long winter with heavy snowpack and a slow warm-up.
Typically, a late spring is seen as a hindrance to the economy. Crops are planted later, shortening the overall growing season.
However, there are benefits to a late spring. Postponed projects and maintenance issues can be addressed, and when spring finally arrives, we can sit in the sun and enjoy a good book.