Framing Olivia

I took a road trip this weekend up to northern Virginia to meet with the David Freeberg, who is going to mount and frame the fabulous Olivia by John Matthew Moore (see my post about him from last month). David's an artist himself, but he is behind A & D Custom Framing in McLean.

When I first arrived, David was working with another customer who had something like three different pieces in the shop. The man kept telling me "he's worth the wait!" After a few minutes, out she came. Olivia.

Even in poor quality iPhone pictures she looks beautiful, doesn't she? I was giddy. Then we had some fun. Olivia is going to be on a floating mat over fabric. The first fabric David pulled was a buttery, wheat colored raw silk. It was beautiful, but it was a little too yellow. The next fabric was perfect - a beige linen. It seemed like an appropriate match for the subject, too! I was sold before he got it unfurled. Bonus: it was the more economical option.

Now for frames. David called Matthew and got a few suggestions. As the samples were put on the table, I kept going back to the 2nd one David gave me. Which do you like best?

My pick is the first on the left. It's got an nice shape, it's too thick or thin, has a natural wash to it, and it is dinged by hand a bit to make it more rustic. It seemed like a great match for Olivia.

While I was weighing the options, two different customers came in and were drawn to the piece. One woman was nearly freaking out over how beautiful it is and was so excited to hear that Matthew was moving his gallery to McLean (from Chevy Chase). Another complimented my choice of frame, saying it was the one she would go with, too. After she left, David told me she is an art professor at George Washington University, which was nice.

David also made an interesting suggestion to use high quality acrylic instead of glass in the framing. He said the glass would be very heavy and if it ever broke, it could damage the print behind it. I had been thinking that the broken glass would be bad for little paws and agreed.

The actual frame discussion didn't take too long, but David is such an interesting guy that I found myself standing in the shop talking for well over an hour.

I'm going to pick Olivia up next week! I can't wait!


Oh! Another person's piece from the same serious of ewes that Matthew did was in the shop. He had a sepia print done for them. Pretty striking, huh?