Measure twice, cut once

Today I started matting. First I cut down a couple mats that fit the picture but not the frame. I wasn’t thinking on the first one and just chopped all the excess off one side. When I turned it over, I was horrified. I thought about dropping the photo from my show, but found one matboard that will work in a double frame. I was relieved. I like my turtles. We toured a Louisiana swamp on New Year’s Eve 2007 with my brother and his family. Guide pointed out turtles. I was using my film camera. I focused on the branch and shot away, not knowing what I was taking. I was quite surprised when I saw this image. I’m calling it “Happy Together” after The Turtles’ 1967 chart-topper.

The next mat-cutting went better. Somehow the original pink mat for this photo had gotten a stain on it. I cannot understand how. None of my mat stash or matboards went with the picture. When I went to thrift store for more frames to cannibalize, I found one with a large double mat, one medium blue and the other cream. It went perfectly with that picture and enabled me to use a black frame that I was recycling. After my experience with the turtles, I was much more careful to properly align the frame on the mat. Because of the mysterious stain, the picture is not dead center within the mat, but I rather like its appearance. As you can see, I drew several cut lines before I got everything centered.

When I finished framing this, I had recycled frame, glass, backer board, hanger and one mat. I went to high school this afternoon and began cutting. What a pleasure! However, “Measure twice, cut once” saved me this time, too. We kept confusing the horizontal and vertical cut dimensions. I laid the picture I was matting on the matboard before cutting and that saved me. We changed measurements on one mat several times with various colored pencils. By the time we cut it, matboard back looked like a Scottish tartan. Whatever works.