Turn Your Snapshots into Artwork!

Have you ever thought of enlarging your own digital snapshots and transforming them into artwork for your home or business? Recent advances in commercial printing technology has made this very possible and there are a lot of options available. I had a customer come in recently with these massive photos of her and her husband wakeboarding. She is decorating her cabin up in the Shushwap and wanted some large artwork to suit the casual "summer" setting. I mounted and laminated the photographs with a UV protecting non-glare finish (no glass required) making these pieces very lightweight and durable, and framed them in a boxy walnut frame.To give you a better idea of scale, these pictures are each over 3 feet by 4 feet!

Most framers will be able to refer you to a printer in your area who can do large format printing. The print shop will ask you what type of surface you would like to print your pictures on. This can be quite confusing as there are all sorts of paper types as well as canvas. What I recommend is when choosing a paper surface make sure you tell the printer the paper will need to stand up to the "drymounting" process. Avoid shiny papers or any type of papers that are heat sensitive or waterproof. They will not be able to be drymounted. If you choose to have your photo printed on canvas, you might want to have the canvas stretched professionally at a frame shop even if the printer offers the service. Speaking from experience, a rule of thumb is "leave the printing to the printer, and the framing to the framer!" Hope this information helps and inspires you to look at your digital snapshots in a new way!

A Grandparent's Gift

I had a couple come in the shop recently to frame a picture of their granddaughter, to be given as a gift to the new parents. This is not really out of the ordinary in itself, but I was really touched by the effort and care they had put into collecting the little footprints and handprints of their grandaughter. They were just totally in love with this new baby girl and it showed! They wanted to get a plaque made with the name and details of the baby's birth on it, and after much discussion the grandmother decided to handwrite the information instead, and i think turned out perfect this way. One day, long after these grandparents are gone, this family will have a beautiful keepsake reminding them everyday of how much they all are loved!

Grouping Artwork

Grouping pictures is a great way to bring together artwork, photographs, and those strange miscellaneous items we all collect that inspire us but we can't find a home for. I had a bunch of black frames destined for the garbage can and an assortment of art, art cards, and pages cut out of books that I wanted to put together on a wall at home. I unified the grouping with black frames, and cream coloured matting. This is a really easy, economical way to decorate a bare wall. The mat borders are not all even, but who cares! No rules here. You could mix up the mat colours for a fun look, or play with spacing the art in different ways. If you had a group of artwork that was more formal, there is no limit to beautiful custom framed groupings with more traditional and symmetrical layouts.







Here are a few more pictures from the web of different styles of groupings. So if you have a big bare wall at home, consider a grouping instead of one big piece of artwork, you'll be glad you did...and keep collecting, because its easy to add and subtract art as you journey through life!