Cool Project - Medicine Cabinet

Another cool project recently left Frame of Reference - a custom built medicine cabinet. The problem started with a newly remodeled bathroom; new sink/countertop, new faucet, new light fixture, new tile backsplash, and a lousy $20 Home Depot medicine cabinet.

Black plastic frame, cheap stained plastic interior with cheesy shelves.

See? UGLY!

The real problem is that the homeowner just couldn't find anything to make her happy. The bathroom is cool and geometric, and premade cabinets just weren't working for her. So, we built one from scratch! A pale, ice blue lacquer outer frame with a cream lacquer fillet were used to construct the door.

The case was custom built from poplar, lacquered white inside with adjustable glass shelves. We backed the case with mirror and faced it with a lacquered frame that mimics the bamboo shelves hanging to the right of the medicine cabinet.

The end result? Harmony in the bathroom, and a truly custom look that delights the homeowner every morning! Problem solved!

New Art, Busy Summer

Okay, we're a little behind. I've actually put "BLOG" in big orange letters on the scheduling calendar every Wednesday, with the intent being to help me remember to blog regularly. I was out of town last week, and Christine had planned to write the post, but she was absolutely SWAMPED! It's been quite busy these past few weeks, with both gallery browsers (and buyers!) and framing clients, and there was simply too much work for one person last week.

When I returned to work this past Sunday, we agreed to take on a series of very time sensitive jobs with much less than our usual turnaround time, so the blog got postponed again! Today is a fill-in, with two posts of substance to follow this weekend. As a teaser, I'll share that one post is about a custom medicine cabinet which I built and installed last week - it was a fun project that has helped to transform a small bathroom remodel.

For the other post, you get a visual teaser. The painting below - "The Journey Begins" - is an original oil painting by Lakeside painter Tabby Ivy, our newest artist! We've been framing Tabby's work for several years; most of what she painted was for friends or museum fundraisers. Up to this point, she has not been represented by a gallery. We broached the subject earlier this Spring and Tabby jumped at the chance. We've just received five new paintings which will be framed and ready for display by next week. At that point, I'll do a full post about Tabby and her artwork, but until then, feast your eyes on this...

Cool Project!

We frame all sorts of things here, from the usual posters, prints and paintings to objects like WWII medal collections, a Blackfeet medicine bag, antique firearms and a wristwatch, just to name a few. This project came through last week, and both Christine and I are pretty pleased with how it turned out.

It's a two-dollar bill, circa 1928, and on the back is handwritten, "Northfield - 1943 - the beginning". The owner sent it for framing; it was the first money earned by his grandparents' chicken farm in Northfield, Vermont. Our instructions were to present the back of the bill, but beyond that the design was left up to us.

The problem, for Christine, was that the back of the bill is...boring. Other than the inscription, all of the ink is muddy, and not particularly interesting. The front has some printing in a great vermilion color, and it seemed prudent to show that side, too, so she designed a two-sided presentation. It wasn't particularly difficult, but it is complex in that we chose to have both sides look like the "front" rather than having the frame face one side and attempt to finish the back side of the frame somewhat attractively. The bill was encapsulated in mylar - basically sandwiched between two layers of clear film with no adhesive - so the edges could be shown. We cut a triple mat for each side using loden green linen, a bit of red to match the seal on the face of the bill and a nice mossy green for punch. The frame is a rustic cedar veneer in an interesting brownish-gray tone. When we had the depth of the finished matting and glazing determined, we built two identical frames, ran them through the table saw so that each was exactly half of the required depth, then joined them back to back using a biscuit joiner. Table saws and biscuit joiners aren't generally used for most framing projects, but I'm sort of a tool geek, so of course I own them!

Did you notice Roxie in the background of this photo? She's getting so big...

The completed piece was designed to sit on a tabletop without any support - it's just wide enough. However, we've got these great new easels that just so happen to be the perfect size and color, so Christine put one into the package before sending it back East. It allows for a little more polished presentation.

Christine got an email the other day - the owner was overwhelmed, and the completed frame greatly exceeded his expectations. It now holds a prominent place in his dining room with his other most treasured things. Mission accomplished!

New in the Gallery: Tara Moore

We're delighted to be representing Arlee artist Tara Moore in the gallery this Summer. We remember Tara's work from when we first opened here in Bigfork; her paintings were very well executed and very, very realistic. As you can see, Tara's style has become much more Impressionistic over the last ten years or so - now her paintings are fantastically loose and full of motion! The best part is that Tara is clearly, in the nomenclature of another artist we know, a "Horsey Girl." Tara lives with and loves horses, and you can see it in her ability to capture them perfectly - it's much more difficult than you might think.

Tara Moore was honored with the Ralph "Tuffy" Berg Award in 2007 at the C.M. Russell Auction and Exhibition in Great Falls, and she's been juried into the Auction every year since then. In 2006 she was one of six Impressionists in the "Paint Outside the Lines" show at the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, and the same year she was the featured artist for the Montana Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Whitefish. She's been a featured artist for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, has been included in countless juried shows and has had her paintings featured on numerous magazine and book covers. She's also published her own childrens' books! (We're looking into this further - they would be fun to have here!)

Tara is definitely the most "Western" of the painters we're currently representing, but even so her bright colors and wild motion make her work fit in perfectly here at Frame of Reference. We plan to feature her in our June Artist's Reception - stay tuned for more information! The four paintings shown here are currently available; please contact us if you'd like more information.