What can you actually frame?
The short answer is the one we give at the counter: all you need is your art. It can be physical, digital, or still an idea. What it is decides how it gets built, so that is where the design starts, not with a frame.
The longer answer is a list, and it is longer than most people expect.
Flat things
Photographs, family snapshots, a print bought as an investment, limited editions, watercolors, charcoals, pastels, diplomas, maps, posters, currency, tickets. The store is completely acid-free, and museum-quality or UV-protective glazing is chosen with you for the piece.
If the original is fragile or one of a kind, it does not have to be the thing that goes in the frame. The print lab here scans at up to 600 dpi, and the reproduction is framed while the original goes back where it was.
Things with depth
Jerseys, textiles, sea fans, pennants, a pair of shoes, a christening gown, a set of swim fins. These are built as shadow boxes, deep enough that the object sits the way it sits rather than pressed flat like paper.
One rule applies to all of them: an in-person design consultation is required for framing three-dimensional objects. Depth, mounting and how the object is going to hang are decided with the object on the counter, not over email.
Things that are too big
Framing over 48 × 96 presents many challenges the majority of frame shops are not equipped to handle. We have ample experience with gigantic pieces that many other stores have turned away: wedding gowns, kimonos, movie posters and large textiles.
And mirrors
Not art at all, but the same wall and the same frame. Bring the dimensions of the space and we provide the mirror.
If the thing you are holding is not on this list, that is not an answer. Bring it in, or send a photograph of it, and we will tell you how it would be built.
