Frame Up

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It is so hard not to jump in with both feet and do this thing 24/7. I'm in trouble already!

I've cleared out all the picture frames on my shelf, washed it, and done an initial sort. I understand, now, why my "picture frame projects" have stalled: I don't really like the frames.

I bought a bunch of cheap single profile frames fom Walmart several years ago, painted some of them, put them up, took them down, rearranged things, and then stored them with garage sale finds and old ones with the glass and backing falling out....

The initial sort has been fairly easy: any with pictures I want have been separated from the frame and the pictures put in a shoebox, the frames tossed. (Really, they weren't even good enough for Good will).

But there's more sorting to be done: I've all sorts of frames, seemingly missing glass. I think the glass is just "somewhere else." I hope I find it soon. Of course, I also have the opposite: glass missing frames.

And then, there is The Project.

There is one, and only one project I still really want to do. I have a bunch of old photos of the family, including a few childhood pics of my mother, of my husband and, even, of myself. (Photos of me and my childhood are rare. I think there may be about five in existence). I want to frame them and put them, artistically, on a wall in the upstairs hallway.

I've dithered for years on the whole collage thing. The standard advice is: keep all the frames the same for a unified, cohesive look. Same size, same colour, same material. (Yawn). Or, vary only one of these elelments at a time. But if you do vary them all--change all the images to black and white. Hang the pictures so that there is an equal distance between the frames, either horizontally (or more usually) vertically. Or, hang them so that the outer edges form a circle, an oval or a rectangle or some other recognizable shape. I think that covers the possibilities in the "art of picture arrangement."

But, then there's the free-wheeling look: any fame, any size, any finish, any arrangement, any filler. I think of it as the "frames as wallpaper" approach, and it's one I like (on a small wall in a boring upstairs hallway, especially)!

I'm not sure if I should actually DO this project while the cure is on: or just stack the frames and the pics together "for a later date."

Of course, if I purchased the cool wallpaper above, I wouldn't have to worry about all that, would I?

PS: I called one shop I knew bought old videos and Mella was spot on: they'd offer me 25 cents per. I figured I stood to make about $5 so I donated them instead. And they're gone! Dropped them off with a bunch of other things today. We've got the job rolling, we've got wind under our sails, we're moving along....