Preparing Frames for Exhibiton etc.

Getting your work framed, the issue of a lifetime. Balancing between looks and price is pretty challenging 😉 I’ve had some of my works framed by a professional frame maker but to frame lots of work it’s just too expensive. It’s not that the frame maker is too expensive, I just can’t afford it. One or two is not a problem but when talking about 10 the price tag suddenly gets a lot more revolting.

So I decided to buy some decent frames from a local artist shop only they came blank. The black version was twice the price so the choice was very simple; buy blank and paint myself.

All I have to do is wait for the passe-partouts to arrive, cut them and frame the work. By now it has all been printed and toned. Selenium in a large tray really really smells BAD! Even with the ventilation on it smelled downright awful at times. Dilution was 1+4 and left them in for about 3 minutes until they were fully colored. I didn’t like the split-toning with these images. I’ll scan a toned and untoned image somewhere this weekend to show the difference in color and contrast.

When I put the photo in the tray with toner they first turn very dark. It almost seems as if the darker parts in the image go black without detail and then, after about a minute or so, you see the image clearing. Whites bleach out a little (keep that in mind when printing!) and the dark parts come back to life with all the detail. And after about 1 minute the color really starts to kick in. It takes a bit but in the end it happens pretty fast. Snatching them in time from the toning bath is pretty vital if you don’t want that full coloration to kick in. With these papers you have to be pretty quick for split toning (my Ilford MGW.1K is much slower and less sensitive with this). Keep the dilution very low and the time very short. With the larger paper it did seem to give you more time though, with the smaller ones it seemed like I hardly had any time to snatch them in time for a split tone to remain.

Anyway, that was about it for today I guess…off to some well-deserved couch surfing 😉

-Indra