Holiday gifts worth framing
The best gifts to frame are pieces that already mean something: a family recipe, a license plate, a jersey, a child’s drawing, a photograph from a phone. What it is decides how it gets built, so the design starts with the piece and the person it is for.
Ideas from our counter
- A family recipe. A grandmother’s handwritten recipe, oil marks included, can go onto acid-free mats with a wooden spoon in the same frame. A recipe book can be shared out one framed recipe at a time, so the cousins each keep a piece of her history.
- Something of a grandfather’s. One of the pieces Medi took to ABC7 was a grandfather’s license plate with a small engraved plaque beneath it. A piece like this is a way to honor someone, and it often goes to another member of the family as a gift.
- A jersey or a pair of gloves. A shadow box deep enough that the glass never touches them, with a photograph, a ticket or a program from the day in the same frame.
- Photographs from a phone. They can come straight from a phone, even from screenshots. We digitize them, print them in our own lab and frame them, alone or several together.
- A child’s artwork. Children’s artwork gets the same acid-free materials as a limited edition.
- A trip. Maps, tickets, foreign currency, seashells. Our computerized mat cutter cuts several openings into one mat, so a set of keepsakes can be framed together.
- A wedding invitation. A suite floated on pale linen, the wax seal kept with the paper it came on.
The four corners of a frame
We design every piece around what we call the four corners of a frame: the customer, the piece, the place it is going to hang, and only then the frame itself. For a gift, that means bringing what you can tell us about the person and the room it is going to. If it is a surprise, tell us that too.
Presentation, preservation, or both
The first thing to work out is what the frame is for. Presentation is the design, the moulding, the mat and the size. Preservation is the materials: the store is completely acid-free, mats included, and the glazing is chosen to slow the fading that daylight causes. For family paper and anything that cannot be replaced, it is usually both.
If you have a date in mind
Everything is specially ordered and cut to size, so tell us the date when we design it with you. The turnaround is quoted at the counter, and if the date is tight, call first.
What to bring
All you need is your art. It can be physical, digital, or still an idea. An in-person design consultation is required for framing three-dimensional objects, so bring those to us at 1671 Placentia Avenue, Costa Mesa, Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm or Saturday 9am to 1pm.
