Custom Framing Fossils
Haydee has worked with our staff at Prints Unlimited ever since she moved to Chicago a few years back. In search of affordable custom framing that wouldn’t break the bank, she reached out to us after reading several positive reviews online. “I brought in one piece and it was a great experience. The person I worked with asked me a lot of questions and provided recommendations as to what was best for the piece. When I saw it completed, it was fantastic.”
“I travel a lot, so each time I travel I pick up a piece. I have more art than wall space right now.” Haydee has had a variety of artwork custom-framed ranging from art prints purchased in New York to photos from Morocco, another print from Los Angeles, and a painting from New Orleans. “I go out of town and find something I love and want to remember. It’s so special to me that I want to make sure I can see it prominently and that it’s displayed well.”
“It’s been a few years and I keep going back over and over again because their work is always spot on, detail-oriented, and a great value.”
Finding and Custom Framing Fossils
As a former Anthropology student, it was Haydee’s dream to own fossils. During her recent trip to Morocco, she saw that dream come true. While driving into the Sahara Desert, her guide knew she was interested in buying fossils and suggested she look into purchasing specimens from a merchant in the desert. “We pulled off by a small shack with tables outside littered with amazing-looking fossils. The question was ‘which ones will come home with me?’”
Having connected with three different fossils, she had a precarious walk through the baggage check at Heathrow, where security stopped her to puzzle over what the fossils were. Once home in Chicago, the biggest challenge came down to how to display them. She couldn’t picture how to mount them but was confident that the experts at Prints Unlimited would figure out a solution. “If anyone was going to figure out how that’s going to happen, how to do it cost-effectively, and how to make them look exquisite it was going to be them.”
When paying for a custom framing of specialized pieces, the thought put into the project shows most in the consultation. To assure that the fossils would be visible from multiple angles, our staff spent time positioning the fossils to figure out the proper width of the mat and depth of the frame. The fossils were supported by black brackets over a black, fabric mat to make them appear as though they were floating in midair. Finally, Art Glass completed the seamless look by preventing direct reflections and glare from blocking any views of the fossils.
Placed on her mantle of travel mementos next to the photos she acquired in Morocco, the completed project received more than a few positive responses. “My mind was completely blown. My fifteen-year-old daughter thought it looked amazing and it’s hard to impress a fifteen-year-old! Then my boyfriend came over and he was blown away by what a good job they did. He bought some smaller fossils and now he’s considering doing the same.”
Haydee’s takeaway from this and all her projects is that the cost of quality of custom framing doesn’t have to be an arm and a leg. “The incremental cost to go from what you might do at Michael’s to what you would get with a custom frame isn’t as big of a leap as you might initially think. There’s a lot of work that can be done for not as much money and yet they look just winds up being significantly better. A custom frame job doesn’t have to feel out of reach.”