Welcome to the anatomy of a frame! Whether you came here from my articles The Importance of Framing or DIY Framing, or simply because you’re conscious of using the right materials to frame an artwork, I’m glad you are here. Understanding framing as an artist, art lover or interior decorator is incredibly important. If you use the wrong components in framing you could be risking financially or sentimentally valuable pieces. Over the course of this article, I’m going to give you a little rundown on the 5 core components of a frame. It’s not a super in-depth look but it’s a great jumping-off point. So strap in, grab a coffee and get ready to learn!

Below you’ll find each component starting with the most important part, the moulding, and then in order of front to back beginning with the glass, the mat board, the artwork, the backing and the hanger.

The Moulding

A classic wood frame moulding corner — An example of a classic wood moulding.

This is the Outside part, the ‘frame’ as most would refer to it. These come in endless varieties, from incredible gold ornate to your basic, yet still beautiful black and white woods. The moulding's responsibility is to keep everything together, it holds your glass, Matboards and artwork. It is important to choose an appropriate moulding for the overall size of your image. If you are framing a 1x1 meter artwork, you cannot be using a moulding that is 1 centimetre in profile, it will fall apart under the weight of the glass!

There are a few different materials used to make mouldings

Wood:

Any wood could be used, as long as it is a strongish wood.

Synthetic:

These come in a few types and are usually cheaper than wood mouldings. There are plastic-type synthetic mouldings and there are compressed wood chips/cardboard synthetic mouldings. Try and avoid most of these and do some further research to see if it is the option for you.

Aluminium:

These are nice and thin profile mouldings, and they are also decently strong. The space within them however is a bit limited making it hard to keep the artwork from touching the glass in some cases.

The Glazing (Glass/Acrylic)

You may be thinking ‘Matt, I know about glass, move on.’ You don’t, and I won’t! The Glazing on your frame is so important as it’s the barrier and window between your artwork and the outside world. In this article, I would like to touch on 4 different glazing types: reflective, Anti-reflective, Acrylic, and non-reflective.

Reflective:

Reflective glass is your standard, no-nonsense ‘I’m spending as little money as possible’ glass. The only times I’d recommend using this glass is if, you don’t want to spend much (that’s fair) or if you have a piece that is old, weathered or not that detailed, more on this in the next section. Standard reflective glass does not offer a whole lot of UV protection, but it is possible to get reflective glass with a coating providing up to 99% UV protection.

Anti-Reflective:

Anti-Reflective is the top-of-the-line beautiful glass. In my store, we have a sample showing reflective and anti-reflective side by side. The anti-reflective is constantly covered in fingerprints, it looks like there is no glass at all. Of course, this comes at a higher price point, especially with the higher UV protection option. If you can afford to add this glass to your frame, do it in every instance, you will not regret it. I would recommend using it specifically on artwork with bright colours, and heavy blacks and on 3D-like images and objects.

Acrylic:

Acrylic is not the best option; it comes cheap in some stores ready-made frames but it does not hold up. This is something you should use if the artwork is massive, and weight is a problem. It’s lightweight. It does not offer a lot of UV protection and it scratches easily. I would not recommend using this if the artwork is going to be in a highly trafficked area.

Honourable mention:

Non-reflective glass. This is the old-school version of anti-reflective. It looks like what a shower screen or slightly frosted window would be made from. Up close to an image, this will look okay, the further away the glass is pulled from an image however, the blurrier it becomes. Don’t use it, it will make your artwork look out of focus and the UV protection is not up to scratch.

That is a lot to take in, but it is one of the most important parts of a well-framed print.

The Matboard

So a matboard looks nice on artwork. Throw a double mat in a frame and your artwork is going to look a million bucks. Matboards also play an integral role in keeping your artwork from touching the glass. That little half-a-millimetre bevel is, in some cases, the only thing standing between the two.

If you are not a fan of the mat board look, and want a seamless edge-to-edge look in your frame, we can do that, and still keep the artwork from touching the glass. This is a two-step process:

We glue the artwork down: To do this we use either a Hotpress or Vacpress process. I won’t go in-depth on this in this article. Just remember that Hotpressing an artwork is more archival whereas vacpressing is cheaper and could present more risks.
We use a spacer: this magical piece of plastic is glued to the frame rebate and comes in multiple sizes to create the required depth that a frame needs. We can also hide these using Mat board, glued to the spacer.

Remember, no more artwork against the glass!

The Artwork:

This is whatever you want to shove into a frame, a photo, a painting, or a skull. Whatever! Something to take note of here. If you’re framing an artwork such as a pastel or charcoal drawing you may need to consider the loose particles that are on the paper. In this case, we will use a double mat but have the bottom mat sit hidden behind the top mat. This catches any loose particles behind the visible mats ensuring that the visible mats do not get dirty.

The Backing:

The backing is the thing on the back. It’s the other half of the frame sandwich and keeps all the other bits from falling out. It’s important. You could theoretically use whatever you want as a backing although the two common options are MDF and foam board.

MDF:

MDF is a sort of wood. This is a pretty common choice for framing as it is durable and will last a long time. The only downside is that over time, this will exude an acid which will discolour the artwork. This is not an overnight thing, but if you are framing something delicate, valuable or that you cherish, consider placing an acid-free barrier between the artwork and the MDF. An acid-free barrier could come in the form of a Matboard or foam board.

Foam Board:

The foam board is acid-free, so this is the perfect choice for delicate artwork. Foam board does not have the strength of MDF which should be considered when framing something heavy or quite large. Typically for pieces that fall under that category, you should use both foam board and then an MDF backing behind it.

The Hanger:

This is the part of the frame that connects your artwork to the wall. DON’T stick a hook on the top part of a box frame and call it a day. That frame will be on the floor by the end of the week. That is a Matt Guarantee. You can get a few different types of hangers:

MDF hanger:

This is a cheap nasty piece of metal that gets hammered into the MDF. It’ll work on small frames but don’t expect it to last forever

Wire Hanger:

A nice length of wire is tied to a variety of frame brackets. There are a few different types from standard D-rings for smaller frames to 4-hole bracket hangers for larger frames. Choose whichever you think will fit and hold effectively.

Rope Hanger:

A piece of string stretched across the length of the frame and stapled with heavy-duty staples. This will stay strong but doesn’t look as clean as a wire hanger.

EZ Bar:

Bar on wall faces up and the bar on the frame faces down ( image courtesy of mybarnwoodframes.com)

These bad boys are cool. A piece of metal shaped almost like an Z is put on the back of your artwork. Another piece, the inverse of the one on your artwork, is attached to the wall. The artwork is sat on the wall hanger keeping the artwork flush against the wall. These are great with long and heavy artwork, as they help distribute the weight of the artwork evenly.

My god, that was a lot. Feel free to review this whenever you need. It is important info that will help you ensure your artwork is going to be safe. As mentioned at the beginning, this isn’t a comprehensive list of framing info. If you have any questions, send me an email or drop a comment here and I’ll try and get back to you. Otherwise, visit your local framer and ask some questions, it’ll be a valuable experience. If you want to know why it’s important to frame your artwork correctly check out my article The Importance of Framing. And if you want to know how to frame an image, check out my article DIY Framing. Thanks for reading, it means a lot! While you’re here I’d like to encourage you to check out the rest of my site including my store, I have years worth of photography for sale and you might just fall in love with a piece.

The Anatomy of a Frame