Framark Buying Guide

A simple guide to help you decide!

Frame Guide

A picture frame, also known as moulding is defined by 4 atributes.
1: Colour...in this case plain black.
2: Height...in this case 20mm
3: Width....in this case 20mm
4: Rebate Height...in this case 15mm.

The top view is what you would be looking at when you look at a picture straight on in this case a flat black frame, but there are frames that have more colour and patterns on them also known as embossed frames, these usually have a pattern of some form that compliments your artwork or gives it an aged look.

The Side view is what you would be seeing if you were touching a wall with your head, nothing much to see here except a thin black frame, once again there are frames out there that have different colours on the sides to probably compliment your decor more rather than the picture.

Both the front view and the side view are more catered to the customers view point of the frame, there likes or dislikes as far as the artwork goes. However, the rebate size is catered more to the framing side of the artwork. Lets assume your framing a normal poster, a rebate height of 15mm is more than enough to fit the glass and backing board in it with a little to spare but lets assume you wanted to frame a cricket bat. If we were to use a frame with a 15mm rebate height, 80% of the cricket bat would be protruding from the back of the frame causing a not so nice view from the side view, also causing problems for you framer. This is where the sales staff come in, they will recommend a similar frame with a deeper rebate height, one that will cover if not all but up to about 90% of your cricket bat leaving a better side view of your artwork.

A bigger rebate height doesn't just cater for cricket bats, some customers prefer the higher side view that it gives their artwork and others may want to set their artwork to the back of the frame giving a boxed effect, others the appearance of floating artwork with lined rebates.

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Matboard Guide

What is a Matboard?

Put in simple terms they are the surround that goes between your artwork and the frame. They come in a variety of colours and textures in the range and you can pretty much guarantee there will be suitable colours to suit any artwork.

As well as range there are a variety of ways to cut matboards, the most basic is a single rectangle (known as a window), as pictured around
The Thing in the photo to the right. Most come with a bevelled front edge (the part that touches the artwork) but can be reversed to not show this bevel. Double mats are simply two layers of matboard usually one on top of another showing a small portion of the bottom mat to give a more special effect and then of course there are multiple window mats, these will normally show several different windows in a mat so you can fit several different photos in one frame.

If you are looking for a specific colour, window size, double mat or even a multiple window mat, send us a message and we will do our best to accommodate your request in the best way we can.

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Glazing Guide

Glazing

There are many types of glass and perspex, which type you put on your artwork can determine the final look of your artwork. Although I only offer four types of glazing on my website the rest are still very available but are simply too pricy to stock.

Glass

Normal Clear Glass, the simplest glass you may ever use for any artwork, it is cost effective and finishes off your artwork nicely. However, the first thing you see when you get home and hang your picture is the reflection of the room that you have put it in, unfortunately this is something you will have to live with unless you change the position of the picture or put it somewhere else in the house with minimum reflection or change the glass.

Non-Reflect Glass

The cost-effective way of minimising reflection caused by Normal Clear Glass. This comes with a coating on one side of the glass, usually on the outside and it diffuses the light that is hitting the glass. I am not personally fond of Non-Reflect Glass as it tends to soften you image the further away you put it from your artwork i.e. as discussed in frame rebate sizes, if you were to put the Non-Reflective Glass to the front of a deep rebate and line the sides 30mm where the artwork is placed, your artwork would probably start to look a little fuzzy. It also reflects a dull sort of light rather than a total reflection like Normal Clear Glass.

Conservation Glass

Coated on one side with a UV film that resists ultra violet light and usually place face down on your artwork this is used for more up market artwork particularly if it is valuable and requires a UV protection, that doesn't mean to say that it cannot go on Jonnys painting he did at school, the choice is the customers and any sales person should be able to advise on that.

Ultra View

My personal favourite it costs a little more but the way it enhances a piece of artwork is awesome. It has a unique coating that is actually anti reflective, brightens colours in artwork and has up to 70% UV protection, looks fantastic on any artwork. If I had to say a bad thing about this glass, I would say that in the right space on your wall you don't realize that your artwork has glass in it, no that's not a bad thing what is, is it make you want to touch it causing fingerprints.

Museum Glass

The creme de la creme of glass, expensive? yes, worth it? yes, if you have a piece of artwork that needs preserving for generations, does your artwork need it? not specifically. This glass is pretty much the combination of Conservation Glass and Ultra View, if a piece of artwork has it you will seriously not know unless you touch it, if you're up for a challenge head to the Perth Museum and spot the Museum Glass. Not to down Museum glass but there are cheaper glass types on the market, saying that it once again comes down to customer choice.

Perspex

Once again there are many types of Perspex on the market, the 3 that I have used are Clear, Diffused (Non-Reflective) and UV protection. All 3 types pretty much work the same as there glass counterparts, they have the same advantages and the same dis-advantages. There are however only 3 reasons that I would revert to perspex rather than glass.

Size, most picture framing glass is 2mm thick and as such it has a size limitation for safty reasons, that being approximately 1.2m x 1.5mm, I know you can get 1.2m x1.8m but these are seriously dangerous for obvious reasons. Perspex is available in 2.4m x 2.4m sheets and is relatively easy to score and snap or simply pre order cut to size.
Weight, as it says glass is quite heavy the bigger the size gets and a lighter solution is perspex.
Shipping, not sure whether you have received a picture from overseas, it would be a miracle if glass survived the journey, this is where perspex shines, same effect as glass but more likely to survive the journey. As well as that there is the weight difference, lighter and cheaper to send rather that glass.

On a final note, you may have noticed that my online frame products have glass in them rather than perspex this is simply because any customer order above $30 will be delivered in the Perth metro area instead of being posted, as for country customer orders they will be posted so I will automatically add perspex rather than glass.

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