Make an Appointment easily!
Our appointment model ensures each client and project receives undivided attention. It guarantees the comfort and safety of all customers and staff and offers enhanced virtual design options for the "online era."
How to Make an Appointment:
Call Us: Dial 651-385-0500. If we miss your call, leave a detailed message with your name and project description, and we'll get back to you promptly.
Text Us: Send a detailed message to 651-380-8767, including your full name, phone number, schedule preferences, and project description.
Email Us: Request an appointment via email at redwingframing@gmail.com. Please include your full name, phone number, schedule preferences, and project description.
Online Booking: Visit www.redwingframing.com and follow the instructions to book an appointment. We will contact you to confirm and discuss your project.
Remember, we can assist you in person, via email, text, video, or a combination of these methods.
Custom Framing-Pandemic Style
Reflecting on the past year, we find ourselves overwhelmed with gratitude.
Thank you, Red Wing Framing customers, for making us essential.
This past year, the word "essential" has taken on new meanings. It's become a label for nearly everything—essential workers, essential businesses, essential services, and even essential… custom framing?
Yes, indeed.
Dear customer and friend, by entrusting us with framing, preserving, restoring, and enhancing your cherished items, you have made us essential. We've seen a significant increase in family mementos, treasured photographs, personal crafts, stitchery and needle arts, children's art, sports memorabilia, spiritual art and icons, historical figures and items, political posters, and even "saved" thrift store artworks. Thank you. You are 100% essential to us. Our hearts are full, our shop is bustling, and we proudly continue as dedicated preservers of personal, collective, and public essentials. Make an appointment with us today to preserve and display your treasures.
A few favorites from our team:
Stitchery! Valerie shares, "Stitching is very comforting to me. It's one of my personal passions, and I was able to get some great stitching done this past year. Seeing how others have stitched through the COVID year has been a great joy. Our creative passions help slow down life's craziness and leave treasures for generations. Let's keep creating!"
Florals! Clare adds, "One of my favorite quotes is by Lady Bird Johnson: 'Where flowers bloom, so does hope.' This past year, hope has been in great need and short supply for many, so it makes sense that people want to be surrounded by the simple, timeless beauty of nature. Flowers don't care about pandemics or politics. They simply deliver elegance, grace, and steadfastness. Flowers bring hope of renewal and will always look great in a frame on the wall facing your Zoom webcam!"
Puzzles! John says, "Puzzles have boomed in the pandemic era, and we've had a lot of fun seeing what our customers have put together. Pandemic puzzles will represent various memories of these times. They bring a sense of comfort and maybe even exemplify a 'job well done' while waiting to go back to work. Or maybe a puzzle is just a puzzle!"
Mat Design 101
One of the most common questions we receive from customers during the design process is, “Should I have a mat?” followed by, “How much mat will show?” The answers depend on several factors, including the type and size of the artwork, archival and mounting requirements, current trends, and, of course, customer preference. Our design team, led by Master Certified Picture Framer Valerie Becker, is experienced in crafting the perfect mat design for each custom project.
Some artworks require matting to be properly mounted for museum-quality preservation within a frame (yes, we do that). Delicate artworks with holes, torn edges, or unsightly borders may look incomplete without matting. Art prints with wide paper borders may be improved with a single or double mat. Sometimes a mat is unnecessary and can even detract from the design. For example, this sweet needlework was completed with a border that perfectly served the framing composition without a mat.
According to industry expert Chris Paschke of Designs Ink, professional framers and designers typically follow proportion and ratio guidelines, such as maintaining mat margins that are wider than the width of the frame, avoiding “stripes” by using wider mat margins, varying widths of extra mats and art borders, and ensuring “breathing room” for matted artwork (2001). Paschke suggests that contemporary designs demonstrate wider mat dimensions.
The first image below represents a “gallery style,” with a wide and thick white mat—providing plenty of breathing room for the little fox. To make more sense of this concept, consider the wide mat as a wall in a room with the fox image hung on it. Would you look first at the plain wall, or the fox?
A little Photoshop magic shows the fox again with a thin mat. Although the image is larger, the thin mat and frame start to look “stripe-y,” which can be distracting to the eye and create subtle confusion.
An alternative to the “wider mat” guideline is when a piece of artwork is float mounted. This type of design is characterized by an artwork that sits on top of, rather than under, a mat. In these designs, it is standard practice to maintain a small mat margin, as seen to the left in this pastel by a customer’s little granddaughter.
Extra mats and specialized fabric mats use color and texture to enhance the framing design. The print below by Andy Warhol is matted with a bright base color that accentuates the artwork’s “Pink Lips.” The dramatic blue suede mat atop the ship draws the eye to the artwork by gently contrasting the art’s highlights.
However, the most important rule of matting is that there are no hard and fast rules. The overall goal of framing is to enhance the artwork and draw the eye to the object(s) being framed. Much discretion on how that is done is left to the eye of the designer(s). As Paschke notes, “Some framers have a natural eye for identifying a design that fits, and this is often why some designs appear much more successful than others” (2001). Experience, training, and a discerning eye for aesthetics are essential components of the formula for “right” matting (we’ve got those covered).
We are excited to work with you on your project, and we guarantee our designs. Stop in or call to schedule an appointment with MCPF Valerie and her team!
References:
Paschke, C. A. (2001, June). The essence of design: Proportion. Retrieved April 30, 2017, from DIP Online website: http://www.designsinkart.com/library/D-EssenceofDesignProportion200106.htm