Frame of reference

The mats buckled, the photographs bubbled, and Philip Greenspun, a Cambridge photographer, learned an important lesson about picture framing: ''You get what you pay for."

Greenspun no longer looks for the cheapest framer. Nor does he do it himself. At one time, he bought mats and molding so he could frame his own photographs, but he says he saved only a few dollars. Now he tells other photographers: ''Find a professional framer."

It's an opinion that puts him in a fairly small minority: A 2003 study by the Professional Picture Framers Association showed that less than 8 percent of Americans use custom framing.

Choosing stylish moldings and mats is only part of custom framing. Really it involves collaborating with a framer to select the right techniques and materials to preserve your art. In addition to mats and moldings, you need the right glass, mounting materials (and techniques), and mounting board. Finding a framer who will help in making these decisions is important, so Greenspun advises taking the art to three shops. After you think about their proposals, he says, ''come back to the one with the best idea."

It seemed a good suggestion, so without revealing the ulterior motive for the request, we asked three framers to come up with a nice but inexpensive frame for a small watercolor.

Stanhope Framing of Somerville proposed a simple 2-inch white mat with a geometric-patterned gold frame -- for $63.

Fort Point Framers suggested a 2 1/4-inch cream-colored top mat with a thin wooden molding (known as a filet) placed around the mat opening, topped by a matching silver frame -- for $103.

Corners of Stoneham, part of a 31-store chain, suggested a silver, ornate, ready-made frame. A white mat came with it, but the opening was too small for the art. Thus, the framer offered to cut a mat, mount the art, and replace the back with a dust cover -- for $25, including frame.

Each design complemented the art; however, the framers at Stanhope and Fort Point examined details in the art such as the cross-hatching, soft texturing, and subtle shading. They searched through endless mat and molding corners to come up with designs that accentuated details and drew the eye to the art. ''Why wouldn't you want your frame to be as nice as your sofa or coffee table?" asks David Murphy, Stanhope's owner. ''We're not students anymore. We're not hanging up posters from the MFA." Murphy has been in framing for 35 years and does work for the Museum of Fine Art, Peabody Essex Museum, Fogg Art Museum, and galleries along Newbury Street. He also frames for a number of photographers, including Greenspun.

While it's natural for customers to be concerned about price and design, Murphy thinks they need to worry more about how the art is handled: How will the framer help preserve it? How will the framer mount it?

''Consider something as ephemeral as a photograph of you having breakfast in your kitchen," says Murphy. ''It may not seem important now, but 10 to 15 years from now it may well be important." If it is framed without ultraviolet-filtering glass and placed in the sun, it will fade in just two months, he says.

Art's enemies are light, heat, and humidity. Poor framing can accelerate deterioration, while skillful framing with quality materials -- particularly protective glass, matting, and mounting board -- can slow the aging process.

Poor framing can ruin art. Nearly everyone knows that trimming or gluing artwork will destroy it. But they may not know that a wood pulp mat or cardboard backing board can stain the art.

The molding

Stanhope Framers offers more than 1,000 molding choices, including hand-finished hardwoods, silver- and gold-leafed designs, ornate composition woods, aluminum sectionals, and brightly colored lacquers. Molding choice is a matter of price and taste. The guiding principle, most framers say, is to frame to the art -- not to the decor. Thus, the art will fit in even if wall colors and wallpaper change.

The least expensive frame is an aluminum sectional frame, which can cost as little as $4 a linear foot, according to Richard Siegel, Stanhope manager. What most people buy are prefinished moldings, which are cut to the art's size and then joined. Prices range from $12 to $30 a linear foot.

More discerning customers like unfinished hardwood profiles, which are cut and joined to size, then finished. This hides the corner seams. It's a very professional touch. These moldings average about $15 a linear foot.

The glazing

According to Murphy, proper glazing can filter ultraviolet rays that can fade artwork and cause colors to change. Regular glass, which comes in most ready-made frames and is used in many frame shops, blocks only 40 percent of ultraviolet rays.

An increasing number of custom framers, though, use ultraviolet filtering glass, which blocks 97 percent of harmful rays and costs only 10 percent more than regular glass. Nonglare glass combined with ultraviolet filtering is considerably more expensive -- 75 percent over regular glass.

Another popular glazing material is plexiglas, because it's light (making it easier to hang large artwork) and resists breakage, making it safe to use in public places and around children. Its drawback is that it scratches easily.

Regular plexiglas costs about 30 percent more than regular picture-framing glass, and when it's treated with nonglare and ultraviolet filtering properties, it costs about 40 percent more than ultraviolet-filtering, nonglare glass.

The mat

Most people begin a frame project by playing around with a handful of colorful mat corners. Although the color or shape of a mat can help accentuate the artwork, its chief function is to create space between the glazing and artwork. Art pressed up to glass can stick to it or develop mold. Thus, matboard or plastic spacers are needed so the art can breathe.

There are many matboards on the market, but the two types that most people use with fine art are rag mats and conservation board. They cost nearly the same, says Siegel.

Rag mats are made entirely of cotton; thus, they're acid free. According to Murphy, these mats last for 40 years and never yellow. Unfortunately, rag mats come in a limited number of colors, mostly neutral.

This is why many people choose conservation board. It comes in just about every imaginable color. Because the color is just on the mat's surface, the core of the matboard is white. This means the bevel around the mat opening will be white. With rag board, the core of the mat is the same color as the surface. Thus, the mat opening bevel is the same color as the mat.

Though conservation board is made from wood pulp, it's treated so it is acid free.

Because matboards used to contain acid, Siegel says, it's important to check older framed artwork to see if the bevel is brown. That means that the mat is acidic and could burn the artwork. ''If you have something of value and you see this, you should have it switched," says Siegel. ''It's worth it."

The mounting board

The mounting board is the surface on which the artwork is attached. A successful frame needs not only the right mounting board, but the right mounting technique.

''I've had people come in here with signed and numbered pieces and they were dry-mounted down," says Sandi Watkins-Alvarez, owner of I Did It Myself frame shop in Lynn. ''The Antiques Roadshow has been on long enough for people to know that you don't alter something from its original state -- it's worth nothing." Dry mounting is a permanent heat adhesive process that is not recommended for fine art.

Still, some people like to use it for posters. Thus, a dry mount machine is available for customers at Framers' Workshop in Brookline. It is one of the few remaining do-it-yourself frame shops in the Boston area. When customers do their own mounting and frame assembly, they save as much as $35 a frame, says Justin Lamka, manager.

Lamka encourages customers to hinge their art; he uses a water-soluble linen tape. ''We go by the philosophy 'less is more,' " he says. He tells customers to tape across the top two corners, leaving the bottom loose. ''A lot of frame shops tape a piece all the way around," he says. ''That's bad for paper. Paper is porous and it will absorb humidity." It needs to expand and contract. So if it's taped completely down, on all four sides, the art will buckle.

Gail English, manager of exhibition preparation for the Western works on paper at the Museum of Fine Arts, uses Japanese paper hinges. She says linen tape is a good mounting material but is too thick and aggressive for thin or delicate papers. She adds that pressure-sensitive mounting tapes should not be used. Removal is through chemical solvents.

Needlework requires a different mounting strategy, says Watkins-Alvarez, who has specialized in needlework framing for 18 years. She says there are two main methods for mounting needlework -- stapling and lacing. Both can be reversed without leaving marks on the stitchery, and both allow the framer to easily make mounting adjustments once the needlework sags.

''I've had needlework come in here and people say, 'It's beginning to pucker a little. Can you tighten it?' " says Watkins-Alvarez. ''I open it up, and I see it's glued down. How can I fix it?" She can't, so the customer has to find a conservator.

Most artwork is mounted to foam board or rag board. Foam board is an inert material with a polystyrene center, which is a good, stiff backing board for dry-mounted posters and open-edition prints.

Rag board is used for hinging fine artwork. A sheet of foam core behind it will give it extra strength.

In the end, the frame is finished with the standard dust cover, plus hooks, eyes, and framing wire.

Over the years, the frame may need a little adjusting from time to time. Some art materials and papers emit gases, which can fog the glazing. This is one of the reasons Murphy believes every framer should have the framer's name, address, date of framing, and type of glazing printed on the back of the frame. ''If something would happen to your art in 10 to 15 years, wouldn't you want to know who framed it?"

For instance, one of Murphy's customers came in with a Romare Bearden collage that he had framed 20 years ago. Murphy could see something was going on inside the frame. So he opened it up and found the framing materials and mount OK, but the artist's materials were self destructing.

It happens, says English. It's especially problematic with folk artists who use whatever materials are at hand, be they grocery bags or newspapers.

Such complications come up from time to time, but most framing is made to last for decades -- 40 years or more with no problems.

''This is something that will hang on your wall for a long time," says Watkins-Alvarez. ''A blouse is a blouse, but getting something framed is a memory."