A funny thing about framing – while there may be many thousands
of approaches to the framing of the unending variety of two-dimensional “stuff”
people bring in to a frame shop, folks always seem to want the same style of
framing that they have always seen. Maybe
it’s just me, but after almost fifty years as a framer, I have found that
birds and botanicals generally end up in traditional gold or dark wood frames with cream
colored or deep green matting; watercolors find themselves in simple white mats
and plain black or natural wood frames (especially if the artist is framing for
a show); larger paintings (realistic or abstract, prints or canvas) seem to go
home matching the sofa or woodwork. I
could go on, but I won't. (You're welcome.)
But when it comes to the framing of posters, photos, tickets,
autographs, and the like from any area of Fandom (movies, TV shows, bands,
and even sports) – framing is usually chosen to match the items themselves. For instance, team colors always go on various sports
memorabilia (bores me to tears . . .).
Bands have been selling merch for years – I have framed posters,
photographs, guitar picks, drum sticks, set lists, serigraphs, tee shirts, album
covers, ticket stubs, wrist bands, and backstage passes from classics such as Bob
Dylan and the Grateful Dead to current performers who produce high quality
limited edition posters. Fans pay a
premium for tickets to these concerts, sometimes traveling great distances to
attend events, and they want to remember every detail. So fabulous framing is a must.
Of course I have been framing my own stuff for all these
years and my collection has fallen into five primary categories: relatives,
cats, horses, pop culture, and art. Some framed
pieces have been on my walls since I was a child. Oh, and I have some of my own artwork as
well. I am running out of wall space and therefore my latest additions have shrunk from poster size to postcard size (and even smaller).
My pop culture heroes have come and gone over the years; I have
a couple of little pictures of Indiana Jones and Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and
my favorite image of Ross and Demelza (Robin Ellis and Angharad Rees) from the
original Poldark that I stuck into
simple frames and which have been on my wall for decades.
Then, a few years back, full blown Robin of Sherwood Fandom arose in my brain and I bought a nice
little painting of Herne the Hunter from a fellow member of the show’s Facebook
fan group. Nice prints of drawings of
Robin and Marion (Michael Praed and Judi Trott) followed, and then on ebay I
found the lovely promotional postcards from the series. I framed all of these images in shades of
cool greens with rustic/Ren Faire frames to hint at Sherwood Forest.
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| Robin and Marion by Carmen Modde |
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| Herne the Hunter by Iain Chinn |
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| Michael Praed as Robin of Loxley |
After a decent interval, I fell in love with the TV series Haven and framed a little print of Duke
Crocker (actor Eric Balfour) plus a temporary tattoo (adhered to clear Mylar) of the Guard symbol/Haven logo in a driftwood frame (to match the
weather-beaten seaside landscape where the series was filmed and Duke's bar, The Gull).
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| Eric Balfour as Duke Crocker on Haven |
Tom Baker had always been my favorite Doctor – and he was my
“First Doctor.” I spent a lot of time
searching images of Tom to make a little print to frame. I needed two very important aspects of Tom to
be in the photo – his smile and his scarf.
The curly hair was a plus. I
rummaged through my personal private frame collection, and I cannot remember
where it had come from originally, but the wood frame with the colored stripe
inlaid at the bottom struck me as perfect.
All I had to do is sand off the glossy finish on the inlay, add the
proper colors here and there, and then cut a narrow TARDIS blue mat (Bainbridge
Indigo #8526).
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| Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor |
By the time I completed the Fourth Doctor frame I had
finished watching David Tennant's Tenth Doctor’s series with his third companion, Donna
Noble (Catherine Tate). The CD of Series
Four, which could be blamed for starting my entire episode of Whovian madness,
included a lovely photo of Donna from the “Planet of the Ood”. I printed up a copy of it and, wow – I found
the perfect golden wood frame (The color matches the highlights in Donna’s
fabulous red mane), cut a TARDIS blue mat – and it looks amazing.
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| Catherine Tate as Donna Noble (DoctorDonna) |
Then I discovered little trading-card size magnets in one of
the DVDs. I found a frame in my stash
that was the perfect size, so I painted it TARDIS blue and added a two-opening
mat so both Ten and the TARDIS cards could be seen.
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| David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and his TARDIS |
My next prize was the Alice X. Zhang drawing that I found on
the cover of a Doctor Who comic for David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor. I had planned on framing the entire cover, but
discovered to my delight that there was a full page reproduction of the cover
drawing included in the comic – but with no writing on it!
I ordered a frame for it that should have been absolutely
perfect – it had seemingly random squiggles carved into the frame and the color
was a perfect combination of warm cream, gold, and red. Unfortunately the frame company had changed
manufacturers and, alas, the frame no longer matched my sample. It was too pale, too regular. Not wibbly wobbly at all!
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| See how awful this frame is compared to my sample? |
I went to work on the frame, determined to somehow make it
match the artwork. I painted it
blue. I scraped some of the blue
off. I went over the blue with dark
green, red, cad yellow, and blue again.
I sanded it, I scratched it up, I added paint – I subtracted paint. Finally with a TARDIS blue mat, I installed
the print and it was good. A perfect
wibbly wobbly timey wimey frame!
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| Ten by Alice X. Zhang |
I kept thinking my grouping was finished but then the first Torchwood sound track arrived and within
was the best photograph of Captain Jack I had ever seen. It had all my favorite Captain Jack elements
– penetrating blue eyes, hint of a smile, and, of course, the greatcoat. The only thing I found myself annoyed with
was his hair which was far too neat. So
I printed a copy of the photo, and worked at tousling up his hair with some
Prismacolors. Made the eyes a bit bluer,
and colored the coat a bit closer to gray-blue.
Then I got the brilliant idea to add a TARDIS blue hexagonal mat, to
echo the Torchwood logo. For the frame I
found another in my stash, flat, wide, grainy stone kind of finish, with
crumbling edges. I repainted this a
steely silvery gray, so it gives an appearance of strength with a sense of
timelessness (not unlike Jack!). (“IN THESE STONES HORIZONS SING.”)
By this time I had finished watching the Peter Capaldi run as
the Twelfth Doctor. As his song was
ending I realized I had grown quite fond of his take on the role. I went hunting and found the perfect photo of
him from the last episode, when he appeared weary yet still strong, and his
hair was out of control. Of course I
found another perfect frame in my collection, and I painted it to pick up the
silvery blues in the photo (hair and eyes).
The style of the frame itself is a nod to the first role Capaldi played
in the Who reboots (and the Twelfth Doctor’s answer to “Why did I choose this
face?”) – in Ten’s “Fires of Pompeii”. It
has the appearance of ancient Roman architecture.
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| John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood |
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| Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor |
So this is what happens when a passionate and slightly crazy
picture framer frames her own collection from various fandoms. God help me if I ever make it to a Con and meet any of these icons of mine in person - I will need a bigger house with even more wall space!