[morgan]

Does anyone on here happen to know or can vouche for any good framers in this fine city? Thanks in advance!

[drevil]

At the high end I would say Under Glass or Sterling. Best bang for the buck is Lloyd at Capricorn though (IMO).

[Friendly Ghost]

If you're willing to come over to the East Bay, I've found Creative Framing in Oakland does as good a job as the super high end places at a more reasonable price.

[pcant]

Also in the East Bay, Barbara Anderson Gallery in Berkeley is worth the drive. Not discount, (this would be one of those high-end places) but I trust them with all my wall candy and they are awesome.

[morgan]

I have some great luck with Dan @ Edgewise (Mission)

[Amber Halo]

Like the title suggests, I am looking for recommendations for good framers in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Thanks in advance. 

[lee3]

I've used Tom at Dimitroff's frame shop (just across the bridge in Tiburon) for the better part of 20 years now. He's blessed with an eye for his craft and his work is second to none. Great guy to deal with too, highly recommended.

[Amber Halo]

Thanks Lee.

[WOOF]

Any other reco's, or is the consensus that Dimitroff's is the only way to go?

[WOOF]

Oct 18, 2016 20:00:01 GMT 1 WOOF said:

Any other reco's, or is the consensus that Dimitroff's is the only way to go?

Got my dog framed by Sterling Art Services. Their quality is second to none, won't be going anywhere else from now on...

[jhspaybar]

After my last experience where I didn't have a strong referral for a framer, I'm now in search of one . I live near San Francisco, and have a few prints I'm interested in float mounting. Who should I be using? Thanks!

[Amber Halo]

Sterling Art Services. Expensive but great. They are swamped with orders always, it seems, so patience required.

Thanks to Woof for turning me on to them.

[WOOF]

Jun 22, 2017 16:46:37 GMT 1 Amber Halo said:

Sterling Art Services. Expensive but great. They are swamped with orders always, it seems, so patience required.

Thanks to Woof for turning me on to them.

Yup, there's no framer in SF I'd recommend more. They work with some of the best galleries and museums around, as well as printers like Crown Point Press. As long as you can stomach the bill, you'll be extremely happy with the results. Ask to speak to Chris...

[livia]

Any other rec's for framing in the bay area (both poor and great)? I checked out Sterling and don't doubt they're great framers but their price point is $$$ and looking to get some things framed for less than a grand.

[thos]

I've been going to Aaron Brothers. So yeah, I'm looking for a good SF framer too. Aaron Bros are just fine for the cheaper things, but I'm not so sure I want to use them for my newer, nicer prints.

I checked out Underglass this past weekend in the Castro area. I've also been to their Hayes location. Judging by the things I saw framed there and waiting for pickup, they look pretty good. The person helping me found me a frame similar to what I was looking for, then priced it out with varying grades of glass/acrylic. Still ended up being too much $ for me (I don't want to pay 2x the cost of my print for the framing), but there was at least one sub-1k option in there.

Walter Adams near Pac Heights may end up getting my business. The woman working there was really helpful, and she gave a pricing option more in line with what I was expecting... 700-800ish.

If you want to feel really poor, check out Aedicule right around the corner from there. No joke, I was told that framing my print with a Rococo style gold frame was going to cost me $10k+. (For context, I'm trying to frame my Ben Eine "Charming" print, and want a decorative gold frame on it.) That's too bad, because those frames looked so impressive and they provided exactly what I had been envisioning.

[chevyav53]

I like going to Mike at Fine Arts Giclèe & Frame www.fineartsgiclee.com, great reviews sent me there after issues with other framers in the area. Reasonable pricing too, not the cheapest but not going to break the bank just depends on what you want.

[jp]

I've been going to Cadre for about 10 years now (http://www.cadre-sf.com/) for my framing needs. They are not the cheapest, but I often get TruView Optium so that is more than half the cost right there. I found out about them back in 2006 when I went to several galleries in the Jackson Square area and asked them who did their framing. Most of them said Cadre so I figured I would give them a shot. They have a reviews section on their site if you want to see who they have worked with and what people have to say.

[livia]

thanks all! i did some calling around and think im actually gonna go with Cadre or Walter Adams for my smaller piece and Underglass for the larger. Walter Adams wasnt "cheap" but was the most reasonably priced for a specialty frame shop, although their quote for the larger print (a little over 4' both sides) was $8500 (LOL) for a basic frame with museum acrylic and the others seemed to pan out around the $1500-$2000 mark

[Inknart]

Sept 13, 2017 0:03:03 GMT 1 livia said:

thanks all! i did some calling around and think im actually gonna go with Cadre or Walter Adams for my smaller piece and Underglass for the larger. Walter Adams wasnt "cheap" but was the most reasonably priced for a specialty frame shop, although their quote for the larger print (a little over 4' both sides) was $8500 (LOL) for a basic frame with museum acrylic and the others seemed to pan out around the $1500-$2000 mark

That is absurd. I was able to get my Katrin Fridricks, which is 5'x5' with plexi for $1000. That includes a nice 3" Italian Molding Frame and Black Silk Fabric wrapped around an additional frame to add depth inside.

Keep looking around.

[jaydeecee]

I've used Dan at Edgewise Arts in the Mission for my last 3 pieces. If you search my last few posts you'll see the Hush and Pose works in the new art thread.

He's a good guy and I've been pretty pleased with the results. He was fairly reasonable, working out at $6-700 each framed with museum glass. He was happy to chat, make suggestions and take time to look at multiple frames and mats. He's got a couple of nice Cleon Petersens hanging on his wall there as well and last time had a huge 5ft tall framed piece he'd just finished.

[lee3]

It's worth checking up in marin about 10 mins over the GG in tiburon with Tom Craig at Dimitroff's. I lived in town for nearly 20 years (my family left town last november) and must have framed 75-100 works with his help over the years. His work was outstanding and there was a lot of stuff I went overboard and I never approached the prices you're suggesting above. Large 4x3 foot museum glass, corner-less hand made Roma frames were ~$4k from memory and that was for spare no expense, over the top framing. Most of the stuff was knockout work, framed for a fraction of the above and always to archival with museum glass. He's got an eye that I loved and a wonderful taste in art and music. Just a perfect gent and a dear friend that I highly recommend. He's revered in the grateful dead community with a strong sense of family and simply my kind of guy. Sincere and never going to overcharge and a very talented tradesman. If you happen to stop in please tell him I said hello. Good luck

[Amber Halo]

Lee - I hope you've been well and a pleasure to see you posting again. I almost always learn something from your input.

[lee3]

Sept 13, 2017 3:24:19 GMT 1 Amber Halo said:

Lee - I hope you've been well and a pleasure to see you posting again. I almost always learn something from your input.

That's lovely to read, thank you.  We have been well thanks, and hope you have too.  We relocated to hawaii a day before that shocking election outcome last year and really digging it here.  But, with a family to manage, exploring a new way of life and moving both in and out of a rental house into a permanent home (been moving for nearly a month now which is a younger man's sport) we've been distracted albeit in a nice way.  Alls well though thanks and hope to have more spare time going forward.  I hope those of you in SF that have the means have considered hitting up walled off.  It's a 15 hour direct flight to and from which was fairly easy all things considered and an eye opening experience. Apologies for diverting the thread...

[livia]

Sept 13, 2017 1:29:36 GMT 1 Inknart said:

That is absurd. I was able to get my Katrin Fridricks, which is 5'x5' with plexi for $1000. That includes a nice 3" Italian Molding Frame and Black Silk Fabric wrapped around an additional frame to add depth inside.

Keep looking around.

I am actually looking to get this exact piece framed. Called almost 10 framing shops for a basic frame, UV plexi with a mat and the cheapest I found was $1400 from Underglass and the others in the $2200 range. Standard size of ~23"x30" floated were all generally $660-$750-ish range so it may just be this city's access to oversize materials? 

[sfnyc]

I've used these guys recently for prints. They were te cheapest I could find from all the quotes I gotfor simple black wood frames:
fastframe.com/sanfrancisco/

[sfnyc]

And sidenote: From experience I do think all frame shops in SF are overpriced compared to most other big cities. You may as well just buy the tools to do it yourself and recup old fancy frames on ebay if you need these rococo frames - or buy the supplies at art shops because these guys make nearly 10x margins on supplies for something that takes less than 1-2 hours to build.
Seriously, its worth learning how to build your own frames - especially in SF.

[nobokov]

It's incredible to hear how much
Framing prices are. I've only used a professional framer once, but find self framing to be not too difficult. There are many threads on EB and here about self framing including videos on float framing and using ricepaper and such...I usr America Frames.com and the most I've paid was 250 for oversized frames and conservation materials.

[thos]

Sept 13, 2017 0:03:03 GMT 1 livia said:

thanks all! i did some calling around and think im actually gonna go with Cadre or Walter Adams for my smaller piece and Underglass for the larger. Walter Adams wasnt "cheap" but was the most reasonably priced for a specialty frame shop, although their quote for the larger print (a little over 4' both sides) was $8500 (LOL) for a basic frame with museum acrylic and the others seemed to pan out around the $1500-$2000 mark

I'm curious to hear who you ended up going with, and how the framing turned out.  I've been accumulating a lot of prints that I want to put up on my walls.

[thos]

Ok, bringing this thread back to see if anyone here has used Underglass at Church and 15th (Castro area). I now live only a few blocks from there, so it is really convenient, and I've seen some recognizable "urban" art inside. I trust opinions here more than through yelp.

[nobokov]

Feb 23, 2019 0:51:42 GMT 1 thos said:

Ok, bringing this thread back to see if anyone here has used Underglass at Church and 15th (Castro area). I now live only a few blocks from there, so it is really convenient, and I've seen some recognizable "urban" art inside. I trust opinions here more than through yelp.

Here's one not to far away as well. A few galleries seem to use them.

instagram.com/small.works.sf?utm_source=ig_profile_share&igshid=9xfugu0m5s6n