Today I'd like to go over why I developed the practice of framing my own oil paintings. Back in the early ninetys when I was a "serious hobbyist" with my art, I entered juried shows at the local art center that I was a member of. All artwork had to be framed and as a young man in my early twentys I didn't have huge sums of money to work with so I looked for ways to do my artwork in a quility manner and save as much money as possible.

  My art teacher framed my first couple of works and I noticed how she went about it. She told me that she didn't see any reason why I wouldn't be able to do it myself so I worked on finding a solution.

  The local thrift store always had large prints and paintings for sale in frames at a cheap price. What I did was to get a backsaw and miter box at the hardware store and buy something larger then my own artwork. I would than cut the frame down to the size of my artwork, use metal corner brackets with screws to hold the ends together, and spray paint the frame to match the painting. I would then seal the back up nice with cardboard and craft paper like I noticed my art teacher doing.
 
  A few years after that I was able to use my Christmas bonus money from work to purchase a power miter saw and a router table. This is the practice I use today still to make my own frames from "scratch" any size that I need or you need for your commission. I do the bulk of my own work on 16" x 20" and 18" x 24" canvases so I use ready made plain wood frames for those to save the labor so all I have to do is paint it to match. Same for anything smaller. Anything past that I get strips of wood and make my own. I consider it to be a craft all its own and I love doing it. It feels as normal as signing the painting when I'm done, it is part of the process.

  Thats it for now, let me know what you think. Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday.