Fillet Frenzy

This glorious image was emailed to me by a client so I could view my finished framing in situ. I often wonder how some projects will be displayed and this is perfection.

Here is the piece in the shop:

The customer brought me his own frame which I believe he said was a flea market find. The art is tiny...maybe 4"x6." He asked for a neutral mat, and then we started to look at fillets. Fillets are thin strips of moulding that fit under the mat as in this case, or can be fitted to enhance frame mouldings, see lower right. Fillets create a museum-style look to just about anything. So, he was talking my language. And then, when I figured that the image and frame sizes were set, and the placement of the art could either be centered or have a weighted bottom (top and sides mat exposures are equal, bottom is heavier), the client actually finished my sentence for me in favor of the weighted bottom. And we were in love (in strictly a framer/client way)!

A weighted bottom is typical of galleries and museums and homes where someone within has gone to art school. I have read many reasons why this is done, one of them involves the way art used to be hung, salon style (ala The Barnes) and angled away from the wall from the top, so a mat with a weighted bottom would create a visual illusion of it being even all the way around. Now art is typically hung gallery style, one piece every few feet at eye-level, but the weighted bottom remains to give the art sort of a pedestal to sit on.

And now to see the piece in situ, among his amazing mouldings and hung at just the proper height (eye level from the chair), I love him even more. Come back anytime, beautiful stranger!

Here are some more recent fillet jobs. These two each have double fillets! Double the fun!












And this last one is just lovely in a gilded frame and suede mat.