I have spent the past 5 or so days free time prepping for a gallery show in downtown Troy. The last Friday of every month in the summer they have Troy night out, where all the places in downtown Troy along the river have open houses, and the gallery I am showing in introduces the new show for the month.

I thought my ttv images would look gorgeous in framed in old windows, so I have been stripping, sanding and preparing these frames. Ummmm yeah what a PITA. But I am super happy with the results. In addition, my last minute decision left me without custom mat cutting options due to the time restraint, so I decided to also teach myself how to cut mats and frame myself.

That has been an interesting process. LOL.

A few things I learned:
if you use the outer side of the window to insert the artwork, you may want to remove the caulking along the edges, as it is sloped and uneven, as well as impossible to insert the tacks into. If I had realized this I would have saved a lot of mat board and the resulting settlement on duck tape to hold the mat and backing in.

Cutting Mat board takes some practice but for a reasonable price you can do it yourself with just a few materials.

I used :
mat board( local cool art supply)
foam core( local cool art supply)
large metal t square (jo annes)
tape measure (junk drawer)
pencil (junk drawer)
logan model mat knife ( local cool art supply)
freestyle basic model 1100 mat cutter ( local cool art supply)

To finish the framing you can use;
logan fitting tool or duck tape (LOL) ( local cool art supply)
screw eyes (michaels)
hanging wire (michaels)
metal cutter (Lowes)