Framing Options

How do I get my paintings framed?

Now that you've picked your African Art masterpieces you need to get them framed. The good news is, you have a lot of options to choose from and we have several framing partners who can help you. The bad news is, you have a lot of options to choose from, but we have a several framing partners who can help you.

What are my framing options?

Mounting vs. Stretching

Mounting a painting means the canvas is permanently affixed to a flat backing or board using various adhering methods. Stretching a canvas or using stretching bars does not permanently adhere your painting to a flat surface.

Mounting

Dry Mounting

A painting can be permanently affixed to a backing board by using a vacuumed heating process. Please see video below.

Cold Mounting

Cold mounting involves the use of an adhesive to the back of the painting. This process doesn't use heat like a dry mount and should be less expensive than a dry mount as well. Adhesive can be a spray or an adhesive sheet called Positionable Mounting Adhesive (PMA). A painting mounted using PMA can be adjusted until it is permanently affixed to the back of a painting.

Wet Mounting

In wet mounting a water based adhesive is used to mount a painting to a mounting board. In this method the operative word is "water" which means that this adhesive could adversely affect some types of artwork including charcoal or pastel. Some mounting jobs such as water-reversible archival mounting may be beneficial by using wet mounting.

Canvas Stretching

This option is a more expensive option, but it doesn't involve permanently mounting a painting to a mounting board. Wood stretcher bars are used as an inside frame of which the canvas is stretched over. The canvas is kept in place using small staples, while being pulled with canvas pliers.