Art

Forging The Perfect Frame in Bristol

The fine art of displaying fine art

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Steve Mascena is the owner of Bristol Picture Frame Co. This fall the shop will celebrate its 35th year in business. Housed in the former Angelo’s Market, a grocery store his family ran for many years, Steve works alongside his wife Michelle who joined him shortly after their eldest of three children was born. Steve has his Masters of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design and has the distinction of being the first Fine Arts graduate of Providence College. With his children now grown, Steve, a drummer, has more time for his music and is currently performing with three bands, Ear Candy, Dagwood, Harriet Bradford and the One Night Stand.

What is a rule of thumb for people who have an assortment of items to frame?The criteria starts with what is the wall space, what is the intent – is it for a decorating purpose or is it for the preservation of a piece of valuable artwork, and is there an emotional or obligatory intent to frame it? You need to be somewhat selective when it comes to framing or else you could find yourself framing everything you have. We try to help our customers weed out what to frame when they ask for our opinions. For example, you don’t need to frame every piece of your child’s artwork. We are big on suggesting photo albums.

Here in your shop there are numerous frames and mats. How do you start the creative process with your customers when they come in with an object to frame?
I generally start with the selection of the mat first and work outward to the frame. Usually I ask the customer if they have any thoughts or ideas on how they would like it framed. I take that into account, and try to show a few examples of different ways to approach the framing. I feel the customer is coming to us for our knowledge and input. Many times they will totally rely on us, but most people have some idea of what they like or don’t like. Though we might differ on a design element, there is a mutually pleasing solution. More than once I’ve said something to the effect, “you’re paying for it, when it leaves here you’ll be living with it, so if you want the polka dot mat go for it!”

You mention wall space. How important is that to the selection of the frame?The placement of where the customer intends to hang the piece is crucial. If a customer can provide us with the measurements of the space or take a picture with their phone to show us, that is very helpful. Is the object going to be a focal point on a wall or hung with a group of other pictures? Is it going over a mantle? These answers will impact the size of the mat. Many times I have shown a three-inch mat with a molding corner sample and invariably the customer will say they don’t want the mat to “take away” from the artwork. That is the wrong way to think about framing. The correct mat width will enhance how the finished piece looks on the wall.

What is the current trend of what people are framing?
I see a lot of people my age bringing in items to which they have a sentimental attachment. Some examples are recipes that were hand written by a parent that they want to frame and place in their kitchen, or artwork created by a deceased loved one. Many baby boomers have stopped building their art collections and now it is about preserving memories. I’m seeing a resurgence of textile art such as hand-made lace made by a relative that is being framed to preserve and hand down to future generations.

What are some of the most challenging things to frame?
In general it’s objects as opposed to paper-borne artwork. You have to come up with creative ways to mount things that will be long lasting yet reversible and also don’t do harm to the object. In the picture frame business gravity is not always your friend. In a museum or gallery setting many times objects are displayed on a pedestal under an acrylic box and there may be climate control and UV filtering on windows. In this business people usually want to have something put in a frame to hang on a wall in their home, so there are other factors we have to concern ourselves with. As an example I had a customer who wanted to frame a collection of autographed drumsticks from various musicians. Since these were collectable and important to the customer, we ended up mounting them on a fabric-covered board, securing them with minimally visible brass wire and placing them in a shadow box. Michelle bears the brunt of much of the labor intensive work which taxes her sewing skills. Sewing is much more time consuming than most people realize.

Over the years, have you noticed changes in the customer’s approach to framing?
Our customers are much more knowledgeable today thanks to the popularity of programs on HGTV or Antiques Road Show and the many decorating publications. One of the companies we carry, Larson-Juhl, advertises in many of the so-called shelter magazines. Our customers want to tap into our expertise and our knowledge of the products we deal with. We can tell them that a frame might come in with more texture or color variation than is evident in the corner sample, or that a certain detail that only appears once in a corner sample might not look so good when it’s repeated all the way around the artwork in the completed frame.

Is there one item that you framed during your 35 years that stands out?
I think what stands out most to me is that we have a loyal cliental who have trusted us with some of their most valuable pieces of art and family memorabilia. Over the years I feel as if we have shared their hopes and their milestones from framing their educational degrees, or a piece of art for their first home to framing their children’s accomplishments. I feel privileged that my profession has allowed Michelle and me to be a part of the lives of our customers in such a meaningful way.

Bristol Picture Frame Co, Steve Mascena, framing in rhode island, RISD alumni, Providence college alumni

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