Week 4: Enjoy Deep Discounts on Classic Radius (Nielsen Profile #58)

The Radius Collection www.americanframe.com/Departments/Metal-Frames/Frame-Family/Radius.aspx has been a centerpiece of our offerings since 1981 when the design team at American Frame created this profile and had it specially manufactured for our customers. The look of Radius caught on quickly, and was soon massed produced by Nielsen and others in the industry. It’s staying power can be attributed to it’s attractive profile, range of colors and economical low price. Once again, we prove that taste need not be dictated by budget! For the next week, July 29th - Aug 5th, stock up on Radius and enjoy unprecedented savings. (And, don’t forget your free custom cut mat!)

Shared Lives Studio, Maumee, OH

Every week, we generate quite a bit of canvas scrap from our fine art printing department which is donated to support community arts programs. It recently came to my attention that the main beneficiary is an organization called “Shared Lives Studio”, an affiliate of Lott Industries,www.lottindustries.com/Support.html. “Lott Industries is a not-for-profit corporation that provides employment opportunities for persons in Lucas County, Ohio with and developmental disabilities. The artists of Shared Lives Studios are able to share with our community their amazing creativity, talent and abilities. Through art, they are able to do meaningful work and receive compensation for it.”

I had heard through my friends in our Showroom www.americanframe.com/showroom.aspx that these artists, under the guidance of Director Lori Schoen, were creating remarkable canvas weavings and paintings and then selling their works at local art shows. As the studio is literally around the corner from our offices, I scheduled a visit.

What I found was the most lively, friendly, upbeat creative zone I’ve seen in a long time! Lori insists that she does not teach, she only facilitates each individual’s artistic process. Her dedication to her students is remarkable as she spends much of her free time gathering supplies, then organizing and preparing materials donated by local area businesses. This is truly an honor to support their work. I will let these pictures speak for themselves.

Those of you local to the Toledo area will be able to view their work at the University of Toledo “Art on the Mall” this Sunday, July 26, and again at Levis Commons August 22-23.

For Week 3 of our Summer Celebration, Get to Know Techline!

Finish your art or photography in alluring, glamourous fashion using a choice from our next featured category, Techline (Nielsen Profile #99) www.americanframe.com/Departments/Metal-Frames/Frame-Family/Techline.aspx.

With its wide face and elegant finishes, Techline is suitable for an extensive range of works including pastel, watercolor, charcoal and photography. We offer it in 8 beautiful understated finishes. The Florentine treatments are truly transitional choices as they evoke an old world feeling on a modern shape. The brushed and matte finishes are interesting in urban or contemporary settings. Pair Techline with 6-ply www.americanframe.com/Departments/Accessories/Mat-Board/Crescent-Select-6-ply.aspx or Alpha-Rag www.americanframe.com/Departments/Accessories/Mat-Board/Bainbridge-Alpharag-Artcare.aspx mat boards for an ultimately refined display. As we enter week 3 of our Summer Celebration, the savings simply cannot be beat!

A Summertime Metal Frame Celebration!

For the next 8 weeks, American Frame celebrates the genius of the late Robert Kulicke (1924-2007), painter, designer and originator of the aluminum picture frame.

Starting Wednesday July 8, look for sales on your favorite metal designs, and enjoy savings up to 40% off our already low wholesale direct prices depending on volume, plus a free custom cut mat board from our Crescent Berkshire line of colors.

A long time student of early American and European framing techniques, Kulicke was, throughout his career, the distinguished expert on picture framing in the United States. He was often called on by some of the world’s most renowned museums to assist in solving difficult technical framing issues. “He was a superb craftsman of reproduction frames, making them for some of the greatest paintings in this country, including Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci in the National Gallery of Art in Washington and Giotto’s “Epiphany” in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”

The birth of the metal frame is dated to 1956, when the The Museum of Modern Art www.moma.org in New York consulted him to create a framing solution suitable for movable exhibitions. His first rendition was in welded aluminum, finally introduced in 1960, inspired by the Mies Van de Rohe Barcelona chair of 1928 http://architecture.about.com/od/findproductsservices/ss/chairs_5.htm

This design was embraced by abstract expressionist painters Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman and William DeKooning who loved the “clean aesthetic” as it related to their genre. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_expressionism

It was later, in 1966 when Kulicke created the aluminum section frame www.americanframe.com/Departments/Metal-Frames.aspx in response to demand for a much lower cost solution to the welded version of this product. His idea was to sell the frames in pairs, in the same manner that stretcher bars for canvases were sold. His challenge was in procuring the hardware needed, or corner brackets to support his design. It took until ’66 to locate the hardware to secure the corners from a supplier in Canada, and in 1967 he started mass production and distribution through his New York based company, Kulicke Frames.

In 1971, Nielsen www.nielsen-bainbridge.com patented a corner joint system for the Kulicke frame and then grew to become the world’s largest manufacturer of the product. This was possible since Kulicke purposely did not patent his designs. He viewed “originality (as) a by-product of a search for the answers to a technical or an aesthetic problem”. He insisted that “invention is always an evolutionary development” and therefore not “owned” by it’s developer.

So here’s to Mr. Kulicke who made custom picture framing economical and accessible to us all.

Sources: www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/arts/design/15kulicke.html

www.pictureframingmagazine.com/pdfs/Kulicke/Kulicke_0190.pdf

Question: “How do I order just a frame on your new website, without a mat board, glazing or mounting board?”

Select your frame by either using the SEARCH function in the upper right hand corner on the home page, or search by category choices listed in the left column www.americanframe.com. For this example, I used the Standard Plus 3 Frosted Gold.

www.americanframe.com/AmericanFrame/FrameSelectOption.aspx?productid=65C6EA2E-BE94-4219-B308-2ED6809843EE&productname=Standard%20Plus%20Three-%20Frosted%20Gold

Select the “Frame My Own Artwork” option and press “START”. This will take you into the custom framing work flow.

From there, you can elect to preview your art within your frame or not.

Input the size of your image, and the price shown will include the frame, free white mat board, standard acrylic and standard mounting board. To deselect any item, go to each individual tab and choose the “no mat” or “none” option to remove it from your frame package.

If you are ordering a quantity of over 25 frames, you will find that the new site automatically calculates the discounts so you no longer have to contact us for volume pricing.

Still have questions? Please call us at 800-537-0944 M-F, 8:30-5:30 EST. Our operators are here to assist.