Beginning tomorrow, I will have three pieces on display at the High Road Gallery in Worthington, Ohio. The exhibit features work by members of the Westbridge Camera Club and runs from November 28 – December 22, 2007.
I spent a good bit of time preparing my work for the exhibit, but for the smaller pieces, I still managed to be finishing up at the last minute. My three main pieces are all 16×20 matted and framed. Believe it or not, that was the easy part, because I’ve done matting and framing before and because I went with the Johnny Cash approach. They are all three dressed in black. Black frames, black mat. There is a lot of competition for a viewer’s attention at this exhibit, with at least 29 members of Westbridge signed up to participate. So my theory was to make the image as striking as possible, and a poor choice of mat color was not the kind of ‘striking’ I had in mind. Anyway, they look sharp, if I do say so myself.
What was more challenging for me was the matted prints that we could put in the bins, for sale. This was challenging because I didn’t know exactly what to expect, or what was expected. However, the fine folks at the Westbridge Camera Club recently put on a matting and framing seminar (note: I am trying to be very careful with the spelling of matting. I am mortified that I might slip in the word ‘mating’ instead and end up with a lot of traffic coming in to The Patter). That, plus I figured the monthly photo contest format was a good clue as to how most people would present their work.
In the end I selected eight 8×10 prints, and took the easier, but more expensive route and used precut mats. That worked out just fine, except I needed board for the back of the matting. I checked around at some local arts and crafts shops, hoping to find something pre-cut, since I really was getting down to the wire after Thanksgiving. I also needed to find cellophane sleeves to cover the final work, so that the prints and mats would not be damaged by potential buyers as they look through the bins.
On the final day, I discovered that one of the local art supply stores, Prizm, carries the sleeves and they are cheap! They also carried mounting board in 11×14; however, they only had that size in the most expense material – a whopping $15 for 5 pieces. So I was going to be shelling out $30 for my eight prints. Good bye profit!
Luckily, I decided to try Jo-Ann Fabrics, which has a nice framing department. It turns out they sell the scrap matting, for needlepoint projects I think. But the stuff is acid free, archive friendly, etc., and $2 per 11×14 board. So now I’m out the door for $16, cool.
One last hurdle though. As I was finishing the mounting, I discovered my mounting boards from Jo-Ann’s were almost all a bit oversized compared to the precut mats! So I ran back to Prizm (returning the expensive mounting board) and purchased this tool, a craft cutter. I had seen these elsewhere and liked the idea. Let me tell you, this thing made quick work of trimming the backer boards to size. I had everything put together, used the top mat as a guide, and ran the Carl Craft Cutter along the side. In 2 or 3 passes I had the mats sized nicely and neatly, and in a few more minutes, sealed in the cellophane sleeves.
All in all, it was a lot of work and a good bit of rushing around. But seeing the end results is worth it. Now I can’t wait to see the whole exhibit!