Picture Frames - Make your own ?

[iwatkins]

Hi All,

I've been thinking about reframing all my favorite prints (A3 mainly) for my office. At the moment I use those fairly cheap "clip frames" but they are a bit nasty :)

Has anybody had any sucess in making their own frames ? If so, is it fairly straight forward ? I can't imagine it is too hard as you only need to make 45 degree angle cuts and have some glass cut to size. Or is it actually more in depth than that ?

Reason I ask is that I went to our local framing place and for a nice frame they were asking £42 each for A3 plus a nice mounting behind glass. I need to replace 8 frames in my office so that would be £336 *gulp. and that is halfway to the Sigma 50-500 I'm saving for...

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Cheers

Ian

[TSORoanoke]

I tried to get into making my own at one point. I realized why they charge so much. The wood or metal work is not really all that difficult if you have some mechanical ability. Its the mat (matt, matte?) that caused me to give up. The material is expensive, and you blow through quite a bit of it with much waste if you're good. To learn this art would have cost me much more than just paying someone else to do it - and that way I can focus on taking the photos (and making a living, raising a family...).

Best of luck to you!

[Biko]

I make my own frames and it is fairly easy. The hardest bit is making sure you cut the right length.


All you need it a decent hand mitre saw - one that sits in its own frame where you can set the angle. They are cheap to buy. A hot glue gun can speed up the process.