Show Notes
In todays episode we sit back and talk about an important part of the framing process, the glass. We go indepth and discuss the benefits that the different varieties of glass offered at the Frame Center.
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Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:03 The
Speaker 2 00:00:23 All right. Welcome to the Frame Center podcast. Today. It's just me and Scott. Nobody here to join us. So we are just gonna cover some subjects. We're gonna start a series of talking about
Speaker 3 00:00:34 Informative updates to Yeah. Make you more aware of what, uh, what you can get out of custom framing.
Speaker 2 00:00:39 Yeah. And I think cover, you know, I think that the more that we do, um, you know, when I go to people's houses, um, the more we do when we're interacting with the customers, the more I think that, I forget that we know a lot more about framing than the average people. So, Yeah. You know, just starting at the real basic points and just covering all the different materials, I think is a good idea. Yeah. Maybe expanding on that at some point with, uh, the social media team and getting into little bit more expo, uh, videos that are explaining how to do things like hanging pictures and, um, just starting from like, step one, how to wire a job correctly. Properly. Yeah. Which you forget after you've done like 10,000 jobs or, you know, 10,000 wires on the back of something that customers come in and they want something wired.
Speaker 3 00:01:30 Yeah. We kind of autopilot it at this moment, You know, we don't even have to think about it. You know, which type of hanger we're gonna put on it, or Yeah. What kind of nodding we're gonna do to, to, to wrap the piece up. But it's not always a
Speaker 2 00:01:41 Yeah. Cause other things too are like, you know, I, I, when I did a bunch of stuff recently, like jobs weren't wired well, which makes it hanging things a little bit more different. Difficult. Cause you gotta start by like, I gotta rewire 'em. Then you got big pieces with saw teeth on them, and you got the saw teeth on the, on the corners, like they're done, like it's wall buddies. But I feel like just starting from step one, like, all right, these are the different types of hardware that goes on the back of jobs. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, you know, they're, Yeah. This is when it's a good idea. This is why you hang things like this, like this,
Speaker 3 00:02:18 They're weight limits. <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:02:19 What? I have this extremely heavy mirror and you know, there's these things on the back, but there's no wire. It's like all, well, that's a ding. You wanna hang it directly on that, but like, helping to educate the consumers, uh, educate the people that wanna do some of this stuff themselves, or just like, so they understand why those things are done a certain way. I think it's a good idea and a good starting point. Yeah. Um, you, like I said, I forget all the time that like, all right, oh, go put this frame together. It's like, oh, there's a little bit more behind that.
Speaker 3 00:02:48 Yeah. We always say it. So it's easy to put together. It is easy to put together. If you've done it a few dozen times, like, and after we're walking through it and going through the motions, you'll understand how easy it is too. And that's what we want to get to. We want to make it so that it's easy for anybody to be able to, you know, display their pieces on the wall without having to worry about it falling down. Yeah. And not having to rely on 3M command hooks. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:03:11 3M not a good idea. <laugh>. Um, yeah. And, but even like the wiring of jobs, it's like I sometimes I think like with the ready MAs, maybe we should pre-drill on all, you know, so that people don't
Speaker 3 00:03:24 The spot where they would need to hang it. Yeah. It's already,
Speaker 2 00:03:27 You wanna put these hooks a third of the way down. Like, you know how many people think just, you know, judging from some stuff I've seen, it's like, alright, well that one is almost a third of the way down. And then the other one's like, almost you half <laugh>, half, you know, and that kind of throws off the balance going crooked.
Speaker 3 00:03:44 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:03:45 <laugh>. And then it's like, All right, I gotta put another hole in the wall. Yeah. Like it slide it over another half inch to make it hang on the wall straight. Yep. I think that that's a series that we will start at some point, but today mm-hmm. <affirmative> today we're gonna cover glass.
Speaker 3 00:03:58 What a pain.
Speaker 2 00:03:59 What a pain. I know you've been
Speaker 3 00:04:03 Terrible. I know. I've been waiting to use that fun. It's written on the top of my paperwork for god knows how many months now. <laugh>. But yeah, it's,
Speaker 2 00:04:10 Uh, this is a subject you really wanted to get into. It is.
Speaker 3 00:04:12 Cause it's important. A lot of people come in and, you know, we go through the whole process and I usually leave during ster framing glass to the end because it's the one I usually have to have the most time I need to explain to people just to kind of, we've gotten everything else. We've picked the frame. We've picked the map. Yep. We've figured out how we wanna mount it. But now how do you want to look at this piece for the, you know, the next several years while you've got it up on your wall, Do you have, what kinda lighting do you have? Because this all affects mm-hmm. <affirmative> how your picture's gonna look, but depending on what kind of glass you put in there. Yep. You know, the main reason for glass keep stuff from getting to your artwork, you know? Yeah. You know, a standard piece of glass is gonna keep smoke moisture, you know, properly fitted smoke, moisture, and just any other kind of environmental hazards from getting to your artwork. That's its main purpose on there. The different types of glass we offer after that cover different lighting situations and depending on what art you have inside, it's gonna, it's gonna make a vast difference on what you have. So. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:05:12 And there's a lot of different types of glass out there, but I mean, we offer, for the most part, there's three main ones that we're, we're selling and they're all, you know, for and from the custom framing end all have the conservation qualities,
Speaker 3 00:05:24 99% UV protection. Yep. And they're all supplied through the same supplier, so that way there's not different grades from different Yep. Different people. We all get 'em from true view. Yep. Consistency and, Yep. Exactly. But, uh, yeah, so you're gonna have your standard glasses just gonna be called, you know, regular standard painted glass. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, when you go to conservation framing mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And the first one you're gonna go with is conservation clear. It looks exactly like any other type of glass you're gonna have in your house. So if you have other pictures up already that you're not reframing and you want it to kind of match up with everything else, that's usually the, the go to standard glass that we have protects it with 99% uv. So even regular house lighting will fade a picture over time. It's not, doesn't matter if a Yeah. Sun beam is going across it or not regular uv, a regular, you know, lamp light. If you got, uh, the fluorescent ceiling lighting, any of that kind of stuff will affect your pictures over time. Not as quickly, but it will do it, you know, five years later if you go to change, take it out of a picture frame and look at the edges, you'll see a different discoloration mark.
Speaker 2 00:06:27 So that's always a funny one. Like years later were like changing the framing and it's like, pull the mat back and it's like it's a different color that, or everything turns blue. Right. Yeah. You know, there's a lot of, uh, Yeah. It's like, oh yeah, you realize that this print is not Yeah. This
Speaker 3 00:06:42 Wasn't, this wasn't antique vanilla, this was actually yellow at one point. Yeah. This was, you know, a vibrant yellow piece with, uh, green, not blue, uh, you know, striping or something along those lines. Uh, but it can definitely, uh, be a bummer. You know, it's a piece that you have or it's a specialty thing that you had from a, a concert or from a, you know, a family member's outing or something along those lines. Or even just vintage photos that you can't easily reproduce or then you have to go and pay big money to have it fixed, touched up, brightened, any of that thing. Just putting a piece of conservation clear glass in there. We'll save you headaches right off the bat from there.
Speaker 2 00:07:21 Yeah. And you know, conservation glass fantastic. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But I would still, even with the conservation glass, you don't want something hanging in with the direct sun. Uh, you know, no
Speaker 3 00:07:32 Matter how much protection on there, sunbeam, you know, going across a picture, it's gonna change,
Speaker 2 00:07:36 It's gonna do, it's gonna do some damage to it eventually.
Speaker 3 00:07:39 So, you know, get some shades. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:07:41 <laugh>. So, you know, step one up from the, the conservation clear, just going into non conservation reflection control upsides and downsides to that.
Speaker 3 00:07:50 Yeah. I mean there's, you know, pluses and minuses on everything. It, and it's up having a, I'd say a softened look to it has uh, more of an antique quality because of this glare protection coating that gets placed on it. It diffuses the light so that when light hits the glass, it doesn't create a reflection bouncing back. So if you have a lamp or a television, you'll get a soft glow going across to your glass instead. But you'll still be able to see everything else underneath. The downside is anything under that glass is also gonna be softened. So if you have really crisp photographs or if you have uh, anything with hyper detail or anything along, like sometimes um, newer maps or things like that, anything with tiny writing, it's gonna become harder and a little fuzzier to see without getting really up close to. And then it kind defeats the purpose on some things. But for other pieces like pastels, watercolors, antique photos thinks that already have a softened look to start with. Yep. It can really actually, I think make a picture look better.
Speaker 2 00:08:50 Yeah. Diplomas are usually, in my opinion, always like in ular is always a safe column
Speaker 3 00:08:54 Also. Yep. Cause that way, no matter what you have for office lighting, house lighting, anything you remember, you're gonna put it, it's going to be visible. Yep. And viewable. Um, but yeah, it's really a benefit to over the standard glass. Like I said, the downside is like the softened luck and sometimes that drives people nuts and makes them him. Some people compare it to being dirty or clinging, it's just, it's that antique look and that's what people, they use the wrong wording and it comes off as a negative, but it's really not a negative. It's just I'm looking right across the, the way from where we're sitting here and this two maps, one with the standard piece of glass in it, which I can then read all the frames Yep. On the shelf next to it. And then there's the one with the non glare and it just has a softened glow going across it. But I can still read out every word on that map and make out exactly what the shape is on something. So Yeah. Based on your lighting situation, it can be a much more beneficial look than just standard glass. Yep.
Speaker 2 00:09:49 Yep. And then it goes to the, uh, you know, the top of the line glass, which is the museum glass. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, you know,
Speaker 3 00:09:56 The clarity of the regular con clear glass with the added benefit of reducing the reflection. But I'd say about 70%. Yep. Makes everything get like a pale pink or a pale blue tone to it. If a light does show up in it, which is far less distracting than a glaring light bulb light or you know, a sun, you know, a sun streak, you know, sitting in a room.
Speaker 2 00:10:16 I'd say the museum glass, the museum glass is actually a little clearer too, mean Oh yeah. You don't even some, in some instances you don't even see that there's glass on there. Oh. It's
Speaker 3 00:10:26 Just like based on our little display over downstairs with the amount of fingerprints I have to keep wiping off the museum glass cuz no one believes there's
Speaker 2 00:10:32 Actually anything in it. Yeah. They're really glass.
Speaker 3 00:10:33 There's actually glass in there. Yeah. But it does, it makes colors richer without having that bounce back of light inside, you know, from regular glass. It allows more of that true color to come through. Blacks look richer. Yep. Colors look more vibrant and it really does in the right lighting situation look like nothing is on there. Yeah. But if you do have a light sitting on it, it's almost barely noticeable. Yeah. You know, it, it really is the best of all the, all the different types of glass we offer. And it does come in two types. You can get the museum and you can also get one called ar. Yep. AR is the same as museum except it has a lower UV protection level. It just drops down to 70% UV and a lot of artists prefer it because it's easier to clean and not as hard to handle.
Speaker 3 00:11:13 Yep. You know, when going to shows, a lot of people are gonna be touching your pieces, moving it back and forth, even just on the initial dropoff phase. Not to mention one's actually on display and having fingerprints across your, you know, pieces is kind of hard to clean off and have to constantly go up and, you know, wipe and, and and uh, take care of it. So some people prefer the ar, they don't, you know, for the amount of time it's gonna be hanging, the lower protection value on the UV doesn't matter as much to them. Yep. You know, the value, it's a little less expensive but not by a whole lot. I'd say it's around the same par as what non glare glass would run. Um, but yeah, there are some differences for it.
Speaker 2 00:11:50 Yeah. And then all of those, uh, you know, know those three options also come in the plexiglass form. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and again, plexiglass has its own benefits, you know, being lighter on some of the bigger pieces, the size, the options get a little bit larger, um, you know,
Speaker 3 00:12:04 Fragility. Yep.
Speaker 2 00:12:06 So, you know, it's a little bit safer when you have a 48 by 72 inch. Uh
Speaker 3 00:12:10 Yeah. Transporting a giant map or a, uh,
Speaker 2 00:12:13 Yeah. That makes for a, uh, one of the uses for plexi, you know, your shipping stuff. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, lot of artists, you know, have stuff going into shows. I think some shows do require plexiglass. You know, the downside being that, you know, it scratches,
Speaker 3 00:12:27 It scratches has a static build up sometimes. Yeah. Usually not recommended for anything that you're gonna work with pastels or a dustlike particle. Cause it will actually, in the right situation, especially after cleaning, we'll create a static charge that'll actually pull the particles off the paper. Yep. And the last thing you want is, I mean, your art have your artwork transferred to the glass and then you know, it wiped away.
Speaker 2 00:12:46 So all you know, so the three majors are available in, uh, that plexiglass form. We also do for the ready made stuff that we have, rather than giving people the a conservation clear glass in there that's a little bit trickier to handle. You know, the ready MAs we do are just filled with, uh, real basic, you know Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:13:09 Standard basic
Speaker 2 00:13:09 Glass, basic standard glass. Um, you know, we do have a lot of customers that come in that buy, you know, ready mades on a regular basis and just have us flip the glass out cuz they want to use the conservation glass. Um, so that's not, that's an easy, an easy fix if you, you know, you don't have to go to a custom if you find a, a ready made frame Yeah. That, that works and you know, you still have that option, always the option to upgrade the glass, so
Speaker 3 00:13:37 Yeah. Yeah. Because on occasion people don't even need the glass that's in the ready made. So to put a hiring glass inside there that couldn't end up getting scratched or damaged in transit or changing things out, it's easier just to have the regular glasses.
Speaker 2 00:13:49 Yeah. I mean there's some basic, and again, it goes back to the, the whole thing with like, you know, I assume that everyone knows how to, uh, how, how to wire a job mm-hmm. <affirmative> or how to hang a picture on the wall, but everyone also probably knows how to handle a piece of conservation glass. Right.
Speaker 3 00:14:04 Like it's Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 00:14:05 It's not, you know, I mean you forget after you've done it for a long time, you know, there's a certain size that side that faces the artwork. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, you know, if that's reversed, um, it can be very problematic as far as uh, you know, scratching you all and that looks terrible. Gotta
Speaker 3 00:14:21 Remove all the protection off of it. You go to clean and wipe it, it can actually
Speaker 2 00:14:24 Remove it. Yep. The interior side on the conservation glass, you don't want to use a ponia based cleaner on mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, and museum glass period. You don't want to use the museum. A ammonia based cleaner on
Speaker 3 00:14:35 Safest bed is, well we use a 50 50 mix of water and a 90% rubbing your call. Yeah. And that's the, you know, uh, the, the best and simplest way to clean your glass without having to worry about Yep. Anything happening. Cuz it will remove any dust and particles you have on there and you know, take off some little goobs if you have any little, you know, little stickers or things that get on there, but for the most part it's going to evaporate to the point where you don't have to worry about leaving any streaks and things behind. Yeah. So it cleans up a lot easier. You know, use something like a Windex or any powerful base cleaner, it's gonna end up eating away at the film that's used. It's the protection Yeah. On the glass and it can defeats
Speaker 2 00:15:12 The whole purpose. We get that on occasion too. I mean, and for the most part, once your picture is up on the wall, you shouldn't be having Yeah. There shouldn't be you running into like, uh, you know, any real points where people are touching your pictures. Yeah. But
Speaker 3 00:15:25 Gentle dusting shouldn't.
Speaker 2 00:15:26 Yeah, exactly. Just a microfiber cloth or a um, you know, just like an old t-shirt, you just something cotton. Yeah. And that will actually in fact take out a lot of the thing like Yeah. Just like a single fingerprint or something like that. Yeah. You don't have to get into like a heavy duty cleaning. Um, you know, I've seen a number of things over the years with like a cleaning, cleaning crew is uh, you know, come
Speaker 3 00:15:49 Through with the spray foam, uh, cleaner and it just
Speaker 2 00:15:51 Yeah. It does a number on the glass.
Speaker 3 00:15:53 Yeah. It ends up creating a permanent pattern or, uh, people take the Windex spray and you just get this permanent missed pattern on the glass that you, you can't remove. You have to replace it. Yep.
Speaker 2 00:16:03 It's just gonna, Yeah. I've seen a couple of like, I think the pictures must have been on the ground and it was like the swer thing. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like that doesn't, that doesn't number on the frame and the glass.
Speaker 3 00:16:12 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:16:12 Yeah. Um, so you know,
Speaker 3 00:16:15 Not saying you have to baby it, but Yeah. Maybe beat a little bit
Speaker 2 00:16:18 If you have a crew coming in or you know, a regular, you might mention that certain things don't need to. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:16:24 We try
Speaker 2 00:16:25 To let them stay away from this one. Exactly.
Speaker 3 00:16:26 We try to let people know when they pick up, especially if they've gotten something like the museum glass or things like that. We have stickers we place in the back of all the artwork that we frame just to inform people what's what it's about and things along those lines. And people have any questions they can always let us know mm-hmm. <affirmative> or ask us before they go ahead and do anything. We've had plenty of people ask us
Speaker 2 00:16:43 That stuff. And that's another, another video series or another segment. Just be, you know, your, your basic, basic care for glass or care for pictures, basic
Speaker 3 00:16:53 Care over wear and tear. You know, it's, it's uh, it's, it's really easy to do it once you know the proper, proper things to use. It's really, I mean, we don't always have to treat things with white gloves around here just cuz we know how to handle everything. And you know, there are certain things though that when you're cutting the pans of glass, especially in the museum, we actually gonna use cloths and things like that to grab everything with so that we don't transfer anything just to save ourselves time. Having to clean and resurface everything before getting everything fit to get together.
Speaker 2 00:17:24 So yeah. I mean, again, those are just like simple things that, you know, you forget the people, you know. Cause I'll, something will leave here. Someone will call me to go and install it. Get there. It's like, what the hell? What do you do? You get like, Yeah. <laugh>. All right. Yeah. Does everyone just before
Speaker 3 00:17:39 When they look at
Speaker 2 00:17:40 These pictures, before we hang this up, we're gonna need to wipe it down, you know? Um, especially you get some of like a black mat or
Speaker 3 00:17:47 Oh yeah. You, that's anything that has any particles or if they have anything. Uh, the high gloss black mask, those are always so much fun
Speaker 2 00:17:54 To Yeah. But a fingerprint shows up uhhuh against anything.
Speaker 3 00:17:57 So dark, dark material. Yep. So,
Speaker 2 00:18:01 Yeah. Well, and then, um, you know, so again, we can kind of, if, if need be someone can order off the menu and uh mm-hmm. <affirmative> get, get a, uh, piece of regular glass if it's something that they need. We just don't really start with that. Too many decisions make it, even the three is kind of complicated for, uh, customers sometimes, you know, I don't,
Speaker 3 00:18:23 Well we have visual aids, visual aids in the store always help for that. We have three maps hanging right next to each other in the store that I go through my go to all the time mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I go, Do you like this look, this look or this look which one is the, you know, grabs your attention first. And that's usually the easier way to explain it. I'll break down everything. Yep. To everybody visually seeing what each one does to the same style kind of map underneath really makes it, uh, easier for people to get the idea of what's going on and that kind of stuff. So
Speaker 2 00:18:50 Yeah. I mean, I think it's pretty, when you see the three pieces of glass, it's pretty, Yeah. It's pretty obvious. Glass is the best. It Yeah. There is an added cost to, to the certain, to the, you know, finer things or, you know, generally, you know, cost a little more obviously or otherwise we would only offer one type of glass.
Speaker 3 00:19:08 Oh my god. Yeah. No <laugh>. But I mean it's, it's, it's the fragility. That's what makes it more expensive. Same thing if you have like a high gloss frame versus upstanding black frame, The high gloss frame's gonna be more just because it's more care that needs to go into taking care of it, cutting it, and putting it together. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's as simple as that. Nothing too, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:19:26 But, and again, you know, the proper handling of them and you know, I mean, I don't know where that you, you're, when you're giving your spiel out front mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, you end with the glass, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:19:38 I,
Speaker 2 00:19:38 It would be a little bit more complicated if you had to go over eight different options.
Speaker 3 00:19:42 That's the thing. Yeah. You know, it's like, there is, you
Speaker 2 00:19:45 Sure you don't want plexiglass, <laugh>, <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:19:48 Yeah. And, and again, depending on the type of artwork, you know, or the size of the piece, just things I just, I don't include just to save a person time. Yeah. You know, if someone brings me in a piece that's, you know, that those maps for, uh, Dan that we've done all those time, those giant, giant maps, I'm not even gonna offer 'em glass because the glass isn't, doesn't come large enough to it's, I'll offer 'em all the different plexiglass options. Yeah. I don't even have to discuss the glass options, but if somebody brings me in a small little eight by 10, more than likely, and it's something that's just going right to their home, I'm gonna discuss glass over plexi. Yep. You know, if somebody's got a, you know, a pastel or anything along those lines, I'm never gonna mm-hmm. Really offer plexi unless they ask for it. You know, if it's gonna be transported across country, Plexiglas is gonna be the least of your worries with, um, you know, a pastel or something that's that delicate mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, you know, that comes down to packing and shipping. Um, but you know, spiderweb and glass versus a single crack through a piece of Plexiglas, there are definite downsides and upsides for both pieces, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:20:46 Well, I don't know. I think think we've covered glass today.
Speaker 3 00:20:48 Glass. Yeah. No, it's a little informative subject
Speaker 2 00:20:50 There. If we miss something and you're listening to this, you know, add something in the comments, uh, you know, ask questions, Give us a call, shoot us an email. Yeah. Um, again, there's a lot of things that would, people that have been in the this business and surrounded by things or anything, um, that, you know, we're, we're probably forgetting, uh, if there's a subject you want us to cover Yeah. Um, is a part of framing or a material that you'd like more information on, uh, please reach out and
Speaker 3 00:21:18 Yeah, we'd be happy to
Speaker 2 00:21:19 Go in, happy to cover
Speaker 3 00:21:20 Discussions on anything that anybody wants to talk about for framing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:21:23 It gives us a chance to get upstairs, take a break. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> talk about product.
Speaker 3 00:21:27 Exactly.
Speaker 2 00:21:29 All right.
Speaker 3 00:21:30 Well thanks everybody for joining us today.
