The Mitered Corner
For those of us living in South Seattle, good picture framing services are hard to come by without major traveling. I had been using the Columbia City Art Gallery’s services, but they have very limited hours — and the guy was never there during the four hours a day they are open. Then I stumbled upon The Mitered Corner, which is owned and operated by a delightful woman named Terry (whose mother does the books). Terry is a real gem–not only does she do beautiful work, but she’s also great about making recommendations about what will look good. When I dropped off four prints two weeks ago, I spent an hour there chatting, looking and frames and matting, and chatting some more. And here are the results:
Terry also recycles matboard; instead of throwing away the scraps, she precuts them into various sizes and sells them for a couple of dollars each. This was a godsend, with all those woodblock Christmas cards; I framed a good number of them — complete with conservation matting — for a very modest price.
At risk of sounding like a blogomercial, I am so pleased and can’t recommend her highly enough.
Comments
I like this posting. Such nice company to share a wall with. Nice also to see some care and imagination taken with the framing.
I have only one woodblock print hanging in the house, and that one only because I could not rescue it from the frame. It was glued to the matboard and the backboard. Some framers are actually art vandals. I am not against framing, I just have trouble committing.
For me, the ideal frame would be easy to open and allow me to change prints around. The Japanese did make such a frame, with two swivelling battens attached to the backboard. I have one that came from ebay with a small Tomoo Inagaki cat print.
Hi Tom,
Glad you approve. Steve wanted your print to float, because he’s fond of the ragged edges of the paper, but he also wanted a bamboo frame (he has an unhealthy obsession with bamboo). I ix-nayed the last.
And glad to hear you like the company: Yoshida, Saito, and of course, Annie Bissett. I don’t have problems committing to frames, just getting around to doing it!
Speaking of frames, I have two Willie Seiler prints that are in just the frames you describe. I love the frames. They’re so simple, yet elegant. (The prints themselves are a little kitschy and they’re not something I would buy; however my grandparents had them hanging in the bathroom when I was a child, and therefore so do I.)
I hear you about gluing stuff down! It’s criminal. On the other hand, true collectors would probably decry my framing and hanging my prints instead of storing them against sun damage. *Ahem* is that what you do?
Steve is a man of sound instincts. Real bamboo is cool, but not something that lends itself to the modern framing shop. Fake bamboo is not somewhere I would want to go.
It is hard to argue against the idea of enjoying your art by hanging it on the wall. I justify buying prints by pretending I might sell them again one day. Condition is everything to the value of a print. Because they are made in large numbers, most collectors want the best quality image they can find. They also tend not to buy framed prints. Framing itself is not the problem, but the frame will not protect a print against light. Hanging a framed print in sunlight will produce a change in the colours in a few years. The bathroom is probably also not a great idea given the potential for foxing.
Abuse aside, I am always amazed at how well washi paper and Japanese colours hold up. I bought a Saito print that had been framed for 40 years, backed by plywood, and pressed up against the glass, yet there was not a spot to see. When I looked closely at the plywood there was an impression of the print faded into the timber, shroud of Turin style, but no problem with the ink or the paper.
Sigh, I should probably move them from the bathroom. Honestly, though, I don’t really like them enough for anything other than a nostalgic hurrah.
So do you keep your prints in folders, and then take them out every so often to admire them? I’ve thought about doing that … and then decided, forget it! I want them out! My mother, who has a little bit of an art habit — though not really the prints — decided a while ago that she needs to deal to support her habit. (Her exact words.) So she runs an art gallery out of the house, with discreet little price tags on the side of each frame …
I do keep my prints in folders and the folders inside a plan cabinet. On top of the cabinet I have a clear surface where the prints can bask in a few minutes of gloomy light every once in a while.
You may soon find that you have more square feet of art than you have space on your walls.
It is not a bad idea to re-sell some prints. Your mother probably has a better class of house guest than I do, but I think using an agent, like artelino, works best. the nice thing about prints is that you can easily post them off and be done with them. No frames, no problems.
I came across you review and could not agree more. I’ve been having my framing done at the Mitered Corner for many years and have always been completely satisfied. The proprietor keeps her training up to date, is very knowledgeable about conservation framing, and specializes in shadow boxes. She has done some very fine multiple-opening matting of my family photos. I have posters she vacuum mounted 20 years ago that look as good as the day I brought them home. Her prices are reasonable. Her craftsmanship and artistic taste are excellent. I have always been served in a professional, friendly manner.