This is the second part to this post, where I write about two separate one day (10 am – 4 pm) workshops I recently took.
This workshop was on the subject of Matting and Framing. I learned a lot of valuable info, even though I would have liked some things about the class to be a little different. The subject of displaying my artwork really intimidates me in general. I want to protect and display my work, but the expense of having it professionally done frightens me. Also, I never had the technical expertise to do it myself. After taking this class, I feel a lot more confident on this point.
The instructor, who was the same for my photography workshop, was really knowledgeable and he did a good job explaining the basics. I was surprised at how much I already knew about the materials just from my own prior experience and reading. The first part of the class focused on cutting the mat. When it came down to this part, however, I had a really hard time. I am just not strong enough to physically do it properly. And just like my colored pencil work, my elbow was killing me the next day. I actually do have a nice mat cutter that someone gave me, but I am afraid that I am not going to be the one to use it for now. My boyfriend kindly offered to learn to cut mats on my behalf though. Isn’t he sweet?
The second part of the class focused on constructing wooden frames. I could actually see myself doing this part myself, assuming that I had the proper setup. I grew up working around woodworkers and power tools, so nothing the instructor explained really seemed that far of a stretch for me. I actually do like metal frames though, so I might just go with those too.
One thing I really liked about the workshop was when the instructor took us through the faculty show that was on display and showed us lots of framing do’s and don’ts. He hung the show himself so he had some inside info on how the pieces were framed. I was really surprised that there were pieces that had hair and dust behind the glass. There were also other pieces that were framed with no mat and other various hodgepodge arrangements, like using blue painter’s tape to hinge the artwork, etc. He also showed us some examples of good framing, and how to tell the difference.
In all, I was happy I took the workshop, although there were some things that I would have done differently. It was a really long day and it would have been more beneficial to me if it were held on two separate days. The part of the class that I was most interested in was cutting the mats and this was also the part that was rushed the most. If it were spaced out more so I got to spend more time working with the instructor, I think it would have been even better. All in all though, I think it was a great class and very informative.
A note on the image: This was a 40 minute graphite sketch I made of one of my grandmother’s drinking glasses. If I wanted, I could have spent hours drawing all the details in this glass.
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