Framed!

**theveed** · December 10th, 2007 08:57 PM

http://davidtong.wordpress.com/2007/12/10/framed/

My apologies for posting a colored blog in my black & white site… But it wouldn’t do the topic justice if I didn’t do so.

Yoki has been painting and drawing quite a bit since we’ve moved to Singapore. His art are getting more and more artistic and unique. Elements are clearly defined in an abstract, child-like manner. Most of his work evolves around his favorite toys and characters, but he consistently creates art of himself with mom and dad with great joy and enthusiasm.
He’s clearly a very happy child.

You can view his best works in my Flickr page.

As he finishes a piece, we stick it on our wall with Blu-Tack as we’re not allowed to drill/nail on our wall and it covered a third of our main wall.

Yoki Showing Off His Artwork Gallery

I wanted to frame his artwork in a colorful manner without breaking the bank (nor the wall) so the gears in between my ears started to turn.

Over the weekend, we went to Ikea to shop for some frames. I picked up a small, black, wooden frame for my monochrome photo gallery plan at home and saw some large, light, colorful frames in one corner. They were $15 each and it’ll fit two of Yoki’s artwork with excess space for borders.

Black Frame inclusive of Mat

I picked up a red and a green frame (opposing primary color) and was excited to get started. The frames are made with light recycled wood, backed by a light corrugated board and covered with a thin acrylic sheet instead of a glass front.

After a few days, I bought two pieces of illustration paper, in different yellow shades, a cutter, a metal ruler, a medium-sized cutting mat from an art store.

The Supplies

I proceeded with figuring how to measure the illustration paper correctly so that I can fit two papers into one frame while bordered with equal margins.

I’ve never been good with geometry and cutting paper, so i knew it’ll be a challenge. I guess I should have stayed awake and not skipped class over a decade ago in high school. Oh well.

After measuring once, twice, thrice… I finally grabbed the cutter and trimmed away.

**theveed** · December 10th, 2007 08:58 PM

Fortunately, my measurements were not that far off and the yellow paper framed the artwork decently. I wish I used a thicker paper type, but i couldn’t find any with that size in the art store.

Nat-Geo-like eh?

I taped the artwork onto the border and replaced the cardboard backing and peeled off the protective sheet covering the acrylic.

I had to find a way to mount this, and I tried 3M’s new Command Picture Hanging Strips. These things are quite amazing and I’m really surprised that 3M has continuously creates products from things that people have used in ages without realizing. These mounting strips work like Velcro strips. You basically mount a piece onto the wall via the supplied mounting tape, and stick another one onto the item you want to stick to the wall.

3M Picture Hanging Strips

The result? A way to peel and re-attach your frame as often as you wish. You can now change the mounted frame to another one, just like you would if you have a nail on the wall!

I’m surprised it has taken this long to find this commercially as I’ve always used Velcro stuck to an item to secure it into a car’s trunk compartment, floor mats, etc.

Anyway… Here’s the end result.

Green and Red

Not bad at all for a relatively low cost and easy mounting. I plan to put another one (blue frame) to mount his blue artwork like his Thomas the Train paintings.

I’ve bought a Canon iP4500 Photo Printer a couple of weeks ago to print my photos, so for sure I’ll be getting more black frames for our photos. The joy of seeing our humble home plastered with framed items created by our own hands is hard to explain with words.

I’m so proud of his fun and cheery artwork. I need a mansion to fit all of them as he grows older, though.