FRAME CONSTRUCTION
All our frames are individually constructed to customers’ orders. They are made from selected quality soft and hard woods, and are glued and underpinned for maximum strength. The frames are delivered complete with screw-eyes, cord and wall hooks for ease of hanging. Our prices include clear glass, which is cleaned and polished before insertion, plus special Conservatex backing board. Both the glass and backing board are held in place in the frame with bendable flexi-pins and the frame itself will be made fractionally oversize for easy insertion of your picture, mount and back board. We can also supply non-reflective glass at a small extra charge.

ALL OF OUR FRAMES HAVE A LIFETIME CRAFTSMANSHIP GUARANTEE

The Importance Of Acid Free Materials In Frames
As you may know, if materials with an acidic content come into contact with your pictures, they may over a period of time cause marks and discoloration to your work. This is of course why all good watercolour papers are acid free. However there are still many frames produced which use cheap mount boards with an acid content. In addition, the standard MDF and hard board backing boards used in probably the majority of frames have quite a high acidic content.

At AFC we only use quality acid free white core mount boards, plus
Conservatex backing board which is laminated on the inner surface with an acid free barrier, and also waterproofed on both inner and outer surfaces. In addition our frames are fitted with “bumper” pads. These white 4 mm thick felt pads offer three benefits: - stop pictures moving, minimise wall marking, and allow air to circulate behind the picture to help prevent damp and mount / picture warping. We believe these are all serious considerations when choosing a frame for your artwork.

PICTURE MOUNTING GUIDE

For customers new to framing pictures, the following information may be useful. Obviously the choice of picture frame moulding makes a very important contribution to the presentation of an artists painting. However, the mount is also an important presentation tool. A picture requires space around it so that the eye is first drawn to the work itself. It is therefore always advisable to use a wide mount in proportion to the picture size, rather than a narrow one. Our standard mount sizes are all calculated to give a reasonable border width, however, as previously stated we will if requested supply border widths to you own specification.

A white or cream toned mount will quite often provide the best combination to compliment your picture, particularly against paintings with predominate colours. A double mount will often further advance the presentation of the piece of work. For instance, a double mount with a dark inner and a pale outer combination will give a feeling of greater dept to pictures of distant landscapes, whilst for still life, or foreground works, a paler inner mount may compliment the picture better. On the other hand, a double mount of matching colours can help to advance the colour tones. Of course there is no hard and fast rule, and at the end of the day, its your preference that matters.

Finally, when mounting your pictures, we suggest that you first assemble the frame with the picture, mount and backboard, close the flexi tabs, but before sealing the back of the frame with tape, carefully examine the front of the work and mount behind the glass to ensure that no specs of dust or paper etc. have stuck to the front of the mount, or picture. There is nothing worse than finally sealing the frame and then having to start again to remove “foreign bodies” from the face of the work.