How to Choose the Right Type of Mat Board For Your Project

 A common concern of artists and photographers is choosing the right type of mat board.
There are confusing terms used to sell mat board.

Terms such as Acid-Free, PH Neutral, Archival, Rag, Alpha-Cellulose, Lignin-Free, FSC Certified etc.

The key to choosing the right board should be based on desired life-span of the final product. 

Although there are many variations - most mat boards fall into 3 categories.
1. Decorative
2. Conservation
3. Museum Grade

Decorative mat boards are considered acid-free in that they are buffered to a ph-neutral acidic level which will eventually deteriorate - primarily based on exposure to light.  These boards are best used for everyday projects that have a life expectancy of 5 - 25 years.  Examples could include framing of cards, lab produced photographs and artwork or printed work on papers that may not be acid-free. For many projects including certificates, awards, promotions, events, advertising and short-term display - decorative or "regular" mats are more than adequate. They have the advantage of being the lowest cost type of board as well.  Additional variations include endless varieties of surface papers and colors as well as different color cores.

Conservation boards are used for most artwork or photographs that have a life expectancy of 50 -150 years - and should be used on original work, fine art prints on quality acid-free paper and other valuable papers.  While not hugely expensive, they provide excellent long-term protection and many artists and photographers choose these types of boards for their original works and fine art reproductions.  Some conservation mat boards come with solid colors through the entire board from surface paper through the core and backing paper.  Along with double-thicknesses and good color choices - these are an excellent choice for fine quality framing.

Museum Grade boards are usually cotton based "Rag" mats whose life expectancy is as long as possible.  Some manufacturers claim 100s of years of protection under "ideal" conditions.  These boards are not significantly more expensive than conservation boards and therefore should be used for very valuable works or works to be archived and displayed indefinitely.  Again, a variety of types of museum boards are available although colors of surface papers may be a bit more limited.

For additional information - see the following links;

www.matshop.com/products/mats/1/
www.crescentcardboard.com/pig0703.html

Mat Tips for 2011 - Rag Mats

Today's post is courtesy of Crescent Cardboard - a manufacturer of some of the finest matboard in the North American Market and maker of Crescent "Rag" Board.   Rag is often mis-understood by those starting to get into the framing market so I felt this information was timely.

COTTON RAG MAT

For centuries, cotton rag paper, prized for strength, purity and stability, has been the choice of artists, composers, writers and printers. Today it is specified for currency, stock certificates and government documents.

Cotton rag matboard was designed specifically for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in the late 1920s. Today, virtually all museums and libraries rely on cotton rag matboard, often referred to as museum board.


Cotton is nature's purest form of cellulose. It is inherently free of lignin, acid and other non-cellulose contaminants found in wood pulp. Cotton fiber pulp is reliable, sturdy and far superior to bleached, chemically processed wood pulp used to produce other conservation boards.

For more information on Crescent Matboards and other boards available see the following websites:
Crescent Rag Board
MatShop Art Supplies

The Menu

As per last weeks post - I wanted to take time to spell out a possible menu of services that artists may want and expect from a publisher distributor and I am hoping that if anyone reads this, they might respond with ideas and comments.

Some of the possible menu items might be:

• Your own website (developed for you by the Publisher and promoted by them- but also directly available to you for update, edit and promotion)
• A "Portal" website where your existing website - tied to the publisher for promotion can be exposed.
• Printing services - a place where you can get your printing of reproductions done at a reasonable price allowing you to wholesale and retail your work.
• Framing services - as above - the access to low-cost materials, labour and options to allow you to re-sell your work
• Fulfillment services - a place where you can count on the publisher to package, ship and ensure delivery for you of your work to a client.
• Show Services - rental of trade show booths, available to you for local or national shows, shipping, framing, display and graphic material support. All the logistics to assist you in getting to and from a show venue and successfully displaying and selling your work - originals and/or reproductions.
• Wholesale Distribution Services -where the publisher/distributor would stock some of your popular reproductions and sell them to retailers providing you with a commission.
• Art Licensing - the opportunity for you to have someone represent you and arrange for license contracts with manufacturers etc - where the publisher would oversee and negotiate the contract on your behalf - ensure your royalties and/or fees were collected and paid to you and ensure the terms of the contract were adhered to.
• Digital Services - Someone to work with to capture your work, digitize it at high quality and help you archive it as well as re-size as necessary for various projects.

Anyway - I am sure there are more - but here is a beginning list. Hopeing to hear from you!

Limited Edition Print - What is it anyway?

I was talking to someone the other day who asked the question - what is a Limited Edition print anyway? They understood the concept but I don't blame them for being confused the way the term is used and abused today. It makes that question an important one.

Technically speaking almost anything that has a pre-defined number of copies can be considered a limited edition - but now most people have forgotten where this originally came from. Back in the days of the "stone" age - OK, I mean where artists used to etch images on stone, copper or any rigid hard surface and then make prints from those etchings - the limited edition came into play.

The reason was simple - once you inked the etching and transferred the image to paper for a few prints, the original etching would start to wear and eventually would no longer transfer a sharp defined image. As a result, the artist started to number how many images were made from any one original and once they determined that the quality had eroded to the point that it was no longer acceptable - they would call that the end of the edition. Most often the original stone or plate was defaced or destroyed so no further copies could be made - meaning that whatever number had been printed was all there would be. In other words a truly limited number - thus limited edition.

That is often the reason why "Artist Proofs" incurred more value to eventual collectors than the prints themselves. These were often the very first "pulls" from the original plate so that the artist could check the quality and thus often the "sharpest" images. If they were good and accepted by the artist - people eventually came to see these as having more value than the last prints produced which might not be as good.

The practice was carried over to modern day printing - despite the fact that using digital or offset printing methods resulted in each print being virtually identical and each one being as good a quality as the next. However, to this day people will pay more for an "Artist Proof" than a regular print and this has resulted in creating a Limited Edition within the original Edition of prints

For good definitions on printing and publishing terms, see:
http://www.thevgroove.com/art-business-reproduction-printing-definitions

What Happened to Art Reproductions?

As I travel and visit stores, galleries and frame shops, I am wondering - what happened to quality art reproductions. The world was crazy about great posters, Limited Edition prints, and small reproductions of all kinds.

Now "decorator" prints are found in Walmart and Home Depot, galleries and frame shops struggle to sell reproductions of fine art and ebay is crammed with people trying to sell work that no longer seems to have value.

Giclee prints - just another form of reproduction, albeit of great quality and often very faithful to the original, greeting cards and gift items form the bulk of reproductions available almost everywhere.

On one hand the world has returned to buying good quality original work - even from relatively unknown artists through the power of the internet and that is a Great Thing! But it does ask the question about where reproductions are headed. I would love to hear what both artists and collectors think the future holds.

I for one think that there will always be some market, but it certainly is changing and quality, the artist's reputation and style of work will bear a major part. More thoughts to come, I am sure........

Intial Thoughts about the "Business" of Art

I have resisted "blogging" for some time, even though it seems to be a great form of journaling and getting your thoughts down when you think of them - particularly in a fast-paced and digital world.
I have been working for over 25 years in the Art Business, as a gallery owner, picture frame dealer and somewhat framer, Publisher of Art Reproductions and artist agent. Along this path, I have come to respect the incredible diversity of art forms, expression and talent that we have in our world and how difficult it is for many incredible artists to gain recognition and respect for what they do. I have also seen many successes and have been grateful to be a part of seeing artists realize success from the response to their work.

I would like to put down in this blog some of the thoughts that I see in a very changing environment, brought on mainly by the digital age and our own lifestyles and demographics changing the course of how artists create, publish, display and sell their work.

I am fortunate to continue to be a part of this market through my company - Island Art and it's division - matshop.com, that works with and supports artists in many ways. I will try to be candid and direct in my observations and invite feedback. Hopefully we can generate some great discussions and opportunities as times change.