EASY MOUNT DECORATION
Ask the experts
Q. I have been asked by a local college to frame some special certificates and wondered if you know where I can find some ideas for doing something different for frames or mounts?
A. Diplomas, certificates and qualifications can often be quite dull and don’t always reflect the considerable time and effort people have invested in obtaining them. Whenever I get a job like this I like to give it a bit more with some extra features in the framing to make it look a little more impressive and increase its presence on the wall. I don’t think a single mount and small black frame really does justice. We are not dealing with artwork here, the piece being framed is informative rather than artistic which opens up the opportunity to be a little more creative with the framing than would be appropriate with works of art.
Double mount with angled offset corners
For starters, I would suggest double or triple mounting, using colours in the certificate or maybe college colours, and/or a larger or brighter frame than you would use for regular framing. On the subject of colours, you can often use colours that are stronger than you would normally use. Stacking frames can also be used to introduce colour and/ or contrast, I like using a thin coloured moulding on the inside of the frame.
do not need a CMC and with a little practice can produce impressive results quickly on a manual machine. Rather than try and explain how to cut offset corners I will refer you to a series of videos I have done with Keencut, they are free and there is no need to register. Go to: https://www.keencut.com/ support/keencut-picture-framingmasterclass/ Or go to the Keencut website and click on the banner on the home page. Scroll down to the advanced section and check out videos 1, 4 and 6. No.5 covers painting bevels which can also be useful. There may be some other videos which could give you some ideas too. David Wilkie GCF
My favourite option however is to include offset corners in single or double mounts, and coloured bevels can also be used to show extra colours without increasing the layers of mountboard. I particularly like the angled offset corners as they are a bit softer than the all square corners. You Double mount with angled offset corners
Corner close up of photo 4
Double mount with angled offset corners and coloured bevels
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Double mount with square offset and notched corners
