Alex Heberling

A couple years ago near the end of my first 3D modeling class, I learned a valuable trick for framing artwork.  There’s this store called Old Time Pottery on Morse Rd. here in Columbus, which is something of a gigantic flea market/home decor store.  They also have some housewares and kitchen stuff, too.  It’s a very odd store, and I’ve only been there a couple times, but it’s almost invaluable for the single purpose for which I use it:

Cheap framing supplies.  For framing your own artwork.  Now, the empty picture frames they sell there are actually a pretty good deal compared to places like Target and Wal-Mart, but that’s not where you go for this.  Instead, you hit the (substantial) framed art section.

There, you will find multitudes of kitschy art in sometimes-tacky frames, though your mileage may vary.  If you spend a small amount of time looking carefully, though, you will often find tasteful frames (apart from the tacky art) that are very cheap.  You then take off the back of the frame, toss the poster, and there you have a decent frame for your piece that even has glass in it.  (As opposed to plexiglass, which scratches easily.)  On Monday night, I got two 16 x 20-inch frames for a dollar apiece

The funny thing is, I didn’t even notice what artwork was in the frames until I got up to the register to pay for them.  I was just looking at the frames, since I wasn’t going to keep the artwork.  The lady ringing me up saw one of the price stickers and said, “This is only a dollar?”  And I said, “Yeah, both of them are!” all happy-like.  Then she looked at the actual artwork, sort of paused a little, and said, “Well, that’s… still pretty.”  Which was when I realized the frame contained one of the tackiest pictures I’ve ever seen.

Tacky tacky TACKAY.  At first I thought the two people were leaning back on a unicorn, but it’s just a white horse.  (I might’ve kept it if it was a unicorn…)  The other frame just had an illustration of some species of fish along the lines of Audubon.  Bad, but not as horribly bad as the Garden of Eden here.

I sort of laughed nervously as she bagged my frames and left as quickly as possible.