The "Framing Memories To Last A Lifetime" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Working of two framed collages of photographs taken by a customer while on a safari.  They chose to have the gallery where I work part-time complete two framed collages, since they had such a large collection of photographs as well as they wanted to give one to a friend who took the trip with them and be able to keep the other for themself.  In order to give you an idea of how I go about creating the finished result, I took photographs throughout the procedure to share with you.  I think you'll see how interesting a way it is to share vacation photographs with everyone who visits with you without having to pass around a hand-full of 4x6 prints.  So, follow with me as I take you through the procedure of creating a neat visual journey of a vacation …..

I start with cutting the frame the customer has chosen.  It must be a frame deep enough to accommodate photographs that I will place on foam and will make three dimensional inside the frame.  Here I am driving in steel corners to hold the bottom of the frame together.  I have already glued the frame and placed small nails at the top for extra support.

I next cut the glass to size and place it, after cleaning, in the frame.

I take the customer's prints and place them on dry-mounting tissue on top of a piece of black foam.  It then goes in the dry-mounting press as seen here.  This will attach the prints to the foam.

After trimming the prints I place them on a piece of black mat board.  The mat board has been glued to another piece of 1/4" black foam for more strength.

Around the edge of the frame I tape pieces of black foam.  These pieces will hold the glass in place and give me a place to attach a piece of black mat board.  This will line the frame with black mat board to make the final result more visually pleasing.

Here you can see the black foam with a layer of black mat board on top of it.  

I'm now ready to glue the photos onto the black mat board base.  I use a water-soluble glue that will hold the black foam board in place on the black mat board.  As you see here, I used additional black pieces of foam to give the photos different depths in the collage.

This is the final piece of the puzzle.  All pieces have been glued in place with some being closer to the glass while others are directly against the bottom black mat.

I am not ready to place the finished piece with all the layered photos into the frame that has the black foam and mat attached to it.  I must make sure that there is no dust on the glass, sides, and prints before sliding it in place.

I turn it upside down and use metal wedges to hold the job in place.

I them go around the edges with a layer of double-sided tape which will hold the dust cover in place.  The dust cover is needed to keep pests such as silverfish from entering the job and making a mess of the project.

After placing the brown paper in place on the back, I take a razor blade and trim the excess  paper from the edges.

Since this is such a large job (40 inches by 20 inches) I am using "Wall Buddies" which will make it easier to hang.

Here are the two final collages that I completed for the customer.  I'm sure they will love them.  I do!

If you are in need of framing and would like me to work on it for you, bring it to Grebinger Gallery and Lancaster Custom Framing on the Lititz Pike in Neffsville, PA.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.