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Mar 22, 2024

Ken Green knows the ins and outs of custom framing — he's been doing it for 30 years

Business writer Ken Green, who owns Museum Facsimiles in Pittsfield with his wife, Laurie, has been a custom framer of art and mirrors for almost 30 years. PITTSFIELD — Custom framing is an art unto

Business writer

Ken Green, who owns Museum Facsimiles in Pittsfield with his wife, Laurie, has been a custom framer of art and mirrors for almost 30 years.

PITTSFIELD — Custom framing is an art unto itself. It's purpose is to complement, not overwhelm, the item it borders.

That process can be a balancing act, and Ken Green knows this through experience. Green, who co-owns Museum Facsimiles in Pittsfield with his wife, Laurie, has been practicing this trade for 30 years.

A photography major in college who is originally from the Boston area, Green spent summers in the Berkshires growing up because his father, Reuben, played the viola in the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 30 years (before that Rueben Green was a member of Artie Shaw's big band). We spoke with Ken Green recently about his craft.

Q: How did you become interested in framing?

A: I went to the Massachusetts College of Art (in Boston) as a photo major. We always had to have a show every year. I taught myself how to cut mats. That started the process. I've never been formally trained, but I've been doing this now for 30 years so I've kind of run into almost every issue you can run into.

Q: How did you end up doing it professionally?

A: Earlier on in our business we got a warehouse find of fine art prints. We got big ones and we got little ones, postcard size and poster size. My wife is a very talented designer. She came up with the poster designs and we brought it to market and it did well. We got into Nordstrom's and Rizzoli Book Stores, that kind of thing.

After maybe I can't remember how many years doing the greeting cards and coming up with new designs and stuff like that Rizzoli Book Stores came up to us and said, "We'd like to put you in our catalog. Can you frame these fine art prints and we'll offer something different?" And me being the stupid person that I am I said, "Absolutely, that's not a problem" having never having cut a frame or put a frame together. They handed me a $7,000 to $8,000 purchase order. I said, "Holy Crow, now I've got to figure this out."

Description: To frame art means to mount it within a picture frame, typically behind glass. Framing fine art, art prints, vintage posters, photographs, or any other work can help to protect the art from dust, water, scratches, or UV rays. Frames can increase the value and visually enhance the artwork, making it look more professional and accentuating colors and details. If you are looking to display your art collection or family photos, get your pieces custom framed professionally, or buy framing supplies at an art supply store and frame them yourself.

Proper tools: For do it yourselfers, a hammer, measuring tape, and level are essential. Glass is optional.

Mats: Also known as a mount, and often spelled matte, a mat is a thick piece of paper or board that sits between the artwork and the framing glass to protect the surface of the work. Mats can be made from wood pulp — which are called paper mats — and cotton. Museum-quality mats, also called conservation or archival mat boards, are 100 percent cotton and can last more than a century. A typical mat is at least two inches wide and wider than the selected frame.

Frames: Frames comes in various styles and colors and should fit your artwork and the style of your residence. Popular styles include, white or black frames; wood frames; shadow boxes to frame 3D objects and mementos; and floater frames. A floater frame pushes the artwork slightly away from the edges of the frame so that the frame does not cover the edges of the item. It provides an illusion that the artwork is floating inside the frame.

Source: Masterclass.com.

Q: So how did you figure it out?

A: Fortunately, there was a frame trade show happening, so Laurie and I went down to New York and went to the show and we learned so much. We found some vendors, we learned the lingo, we found that equipment that was needed. This was for a holiday catalog so we had a little time to figure it out and produce them. So we did make the investment in the equipment. We found a chop saw and a measuring scale that we could do repeated cuts with because these were the same images and a lot of the same size we didn't need to remake everything. We could cut everything at the same size.

I was thinking we need more equipment. But Laurie's father, who was a printer here in the Berkshires (he owned Studley Press in Dalton) said, "What you've got to do is start the job. You're never going to finish it if you don't start the job." Those were like pearls of wisdom.

Q: Why were those words so important?

A: That expression really hit home. He was really, really smart about doing a service business and custom framing is a service business. He was absolutely right. If you don't start the job you can't finish it. So just start and learn along the way and that's what we did.

Q: It sounds like learning to frame is a process.

A: No question, it's a process. You screw up a lot of stuff. You really do. If you're a carpenter and you're naturally adept at working with wood and making good angles and taking care in your woodworking the framing arts comes pretty naturally. That's why we hired a guy to cut the frames because he was a whole lot better at that than I was. And he's still with us. Then you have to learn about cutting mats and mounting and what kinds of glass to use and when to use it. So its gets exponential. Then you have backboards. ... There's a whole bunch of things that you have to learn how to do.

So I screwed up enough of our own stuff on my own. I didn't screw up the customers' stuff, but I would practice on our own. ... Once you can frame a picture you can pretty much frame anything. When you start to do it over and over again you naturally get better at it. The more you do the better you get.

Q: How do you determine what mat is right for each piece you frame?

A: It really is subjective. I look at the work of art. I take a measurement. I've just been doing this for so long that I can just judge what size mat will be appropriate for the work of art. Plus, there's a cost. I've gotten to know my customers and I know that there are some customers that want it to look good and they just drop off the work of art and walk away and say "make it look good, Ken," which is very heartening to me.

Then there's some customers that don't have a great budget and they really are trying to be careful. So I rein them in because everybody's got this great idea that I want them big and I want them elaborate and I want fancy. It might not necessarily be good for the work of art and you've got to think of their wallet. So it's a whole balancing act, really.

Q: How do you choose the right frame?

A: Some decisions are just kind of made for you because the customer just wants something neat, clean, for the kids' room and they don't really want to spend too much. So I go about it that way.

I tend to have a more classic aesthetic than getting super fancy and thinking so far outside the box because my primary concern is to make sure the work of art looks good. That thing hanging on the wall is about the image, not about the framing. There are some framers who do phenomenal work but then it becomes more about the frame than the work. I'm capable of doing that, but I tend to shy away from doing that. That's pretty much what my customer base wants.

Q: What are the hardest items to frame?

A: Jerseys.

Q: Why?

A: You've got to sew it. You've got to do a spacer, you have to an over mat, a backing mat. It takes a long time to sew something seamlessly because I do it all by hand. I don't use a machine.

Q: You have to sew the jersey into the mat?

A: Yeah. You're not going to glue it and there's no way really to mount it with tissue. You have to sew it and because it's fabric it's going to expand and contract a little bit. So sewing it is far and away the best option. It's a pain in the neck, though.

Ken Green believes a frame should be used to enhance a piece of art not distract from it.

Q: How long does it take?

A: I just did a lacrosse jersey and it took me about an hour and a half to sew. But there are things that are much more elaborate. I've done a rug, a 4-foot by 6-foot Oriental rug. That took me three days. It was very big and very heavy. It was very unwieldy to work with.

Q: What are the easiest items to frame?

A: Posters are super easy because they've already got a great graphic on them and I just treat them simply. It's usually with a black frame and I make sure it's got some borders on it. That's usually the simplest way to go.

Q: What advice would you give to someone who wanted to become a custom framer?

A: Man, it's a tough road because you have to be creative, you have to be respectful, you have to have an understanding of art and you have to make that decision whether you want it to be about your art as a framer or the art that you frame.

Usually, framers are respectful of that. There are some framers out there that create these unbelievably beautiful hand-carved finished inlaid frames that are so special. That's some very special talent and I can't even fathom how they do that. But a lot of people need really, really fancy frames because that's what works for their collection. Once you start framing it kind of keeps growing because there aren't that many people doing it, and doing it reasonably and doing it quickly and doing it well. Being aware of archival quality is all a big part of it.

Tony Dobrowolski can be reached at [email protected] or 413-496-6224.

Business writer