Middle Earth Studio - Affordable Custom Framing tailored to the Artist Needs

Our framing studio uses archival materials only - including acid free foamcore backing board, acid free & acid buffered matboards, ragboards and museum quality ragboards. We advise acid free & acid buffered Novacore matboards for traditional chromogenic and black & white photography, digital prints and reproductions; Alpharag Artcare ragboard for high quality digital prints, watercolors and (toned) fiber paper photograhy and museum quality ragboard for original artwork and museum quality digital and photographic prints.

There are several different ways to mat an image:

Certain works do not need mats, including off set reproductions like poster prints and can be framed to actual print size. All photographic prints need either a mat or a spacer to keep it from touching the glass; over time the photographic surface will adhere to the glass. This also includes techniques which can smutch, including pencel drawings and pastel drawings. Linnen canvasses should be stretched before framing and can be inserted directly into the frame without a mat or backing board.

We use only the best materials from the company Nielsen-Bainbridge; which includes a complete range of matboards and a large collection of traditional and contemporary custom metal frames in different colors and textures.

If you supply the materials, the charge for custom resizing & opening a mat is $0.50 per cut. On average this comes out to $3 per mat with one single bevel opening. The charge to assemble and hinge using your materials is $5 per unit (backing, artwork & opened mat; includes hinging or drymounting and taping). If you supply a wooden frame, professional framing is available for $5 each using fletcher diamond points to secure the artwork and black backing paper to close up the back of the frame.

To get an idea the following prices are for a single bevel Novacore mat and includes an acid free backing board and drymounting or tape hinging (your preference). Mylar bags are available in several sizes.