I have some nice frames I would like to use for my hand colored B&W prints. I would like to color the white or cream colored mats presently in them. Any suggestions? Thank You

-- Thomas Horan (Fishman57@aol.com), August 16, 1998

Answers

If your intention is to get coloured mounts, I would just buy them coloured. But you can do some wonderful things with, say, paint brushes, or crayons. It's probably a good idea to make sure that painted surface doesn't touch the glass.

-- Alan Gibson (gibson.al@mail.dec.com), August 18, 1998.

I had some gray mats lying around that were pretty boring and some warm tone prints that i wanted to hang on the wall. Using an old rag, i simply smeared some wood stain on the mats and was really pleased with the results. Not very consistent but I really liked the splotchy look that resulted from the varying degree of saturation. I dont know about the archival effects of the stain being so close to the photo though.

-- WGoodman (good@bc.sympatico.com), June 08, 1999.

I strongly agree with Alan. Get new mats cut with the colors you want. I suspect other wise, you could have a real mess on your hands and possibly ruin those hand colored prints that you spent a lot of time on! Also be carefull with colored mats. I judge photo competitions and one major problem I always find is the choice of mats. I've seen some god-awful combinations where photographers tried to complement the print with a colored mat! Black mats with B&W photography is the worst offender. With photography, white is always correct! IMHO

-- Gene Crumpler (nikonguy@worldnet.att.net), June 08, 1999.