The "Framing To Preserve Your Life's Most Important Events" Story

 It was an ordinary day.  Arrived a bit before 8:00 a.m. for a half-day of work at Grebinger Gallery where I help with the matting and framing of just about anything and everything you can walk in the door carrying.  Items from a 4" X 6" photo to an autographed night shirt belonging to a famous movie star.   I have seen just about everything which made my job today quite a bit easier to handle.  Someone had brought in 40 beach tags from the Cape May beach in New Jersey.  It was 40 years ago that the fellow had gotten married and that first year they traveled to Cape May for vacation.  Every year since then they had done the same thing and had saved all their beach tags.  He wanted us to place them in a frame with enough room that he could add the beach tags from the remainder of the years of travel to Cape May.  Cindy, one of the owners of the Gallery, came up with the neat idea of a rectangular frame with a burlap background that had burlap-like ribbon pieces from top to bottom which would hold the beach tags by pinning them to the ribbon.  The final size was to be 24 inches by 30 inches and about two inches deep.  Frame was a heavy wooden frame that resembled the wood from the boardwalk.  I first had to cut a hole in the top of the mat to accommodate a wooden circular plaque that the customer had purchased at a store in Cape May.  After attaching the mat to a piece of foam board, I glued the ribbon strips to the back by placing them over the top and bottom and gluing them in place.  Next, I cut the frame to size and glued in by using corner clamps.  While the glue was drying on the frame, I attached all 40 of the beach tags on the vertical strips that ran up and down.  We tried not to make them the same distance apart and while mounting on each strip to allow for future tags to be placed in open areas on the job.  When the glue was dry on the frame, I cut a piece of Museum Glass to fit the frame and placed it in the frame from the back.  The lip on the top edge of the frame held it in place.  Next I took scrap pieces of foam board and glued and taped them inside the frame to hole the glass in place.  On top of the foam I used strips of the mat board to cover the foam.  I was now ready to place the job in the opening and fasten it in place from the back.  In this case, I fastened the foam and mat board with clips that could be bent up to allow the customer to remove the board with the beach tags so they can add more at any time they care to do so.  Finished the job with special hangers known as "Wall Buddies" which hold oversized or heavy framing jobs.  Job took the better part of my day, but is something you will never see anywhere else.  I even told Keith, the owner of the shop, he should take a photo of it and email it to a few shops in Cape May.  They may be interested in having us do a few different sizes in hopes of someone buying them for their collection of beach tags.  People collect just about anything, and we can frame it for them no matter what if may be.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - Follow the photos to see how I completed the job.  I'm sorry that I forgot to take photos of some steps, but I think you can follow the storyline.

This shows the burlap mat board with the hole cut for the wooden plaque.  The pieces of cloth ribbon have been glued in place on the back and glued in the middle of the front to help the ribbon from pulling away from the mat board due to weight.

This is the top mat in the first photograph turned over so you can see how I attached the top and bottom of the strips that will hold the Cape May beach tags

The frame has been cut and glued in place using the clamps seen here.   The glue will take about two hours to dry enough to work with the frame on the next step.

This shows the beach tags clipped on the ribbon.  They are not meant to be in any order so more can be added in the upcoming years.  

The frame is turned upside down and the glass is placed inside the frame.  Around the edge I place a one inch piece of foam board to hold the glass in place as well as the base for the mat board on top of the foam board.

The white foam board can be seen on the right with the canvas mat board covering the piece on the left side of the frame.

I'm now lowering the completed mat on top of the side pieces of foam board and mat board.  

I'm driving black metal tabs along the edges of the mat to hold it in place.  It will not be permanent so that the tabs can be opened to allow you to get the mat out to add more beach tags.

I'm holding the final job.  There is no dust cover on the back of this job, since you need access to the rear to add more beach tags.  On the top two corners are wall buddies to hang the job.  We can do just about anything at Grebinger Gallery.  Stop sometime and bring your work in to be framed.