What Happens After the Tube
Every print leaves as a rolled tube. Packed carefully. Then it disappears.
I don't see what it becomes. The framing conversation, the choice of moulding, the moment it goes up on the wall — that part of a print's life happens without me.
What I've learned is that a good framer changes everything. Not just how a work looks — how it sits in a room. The weight of the moulding. The depth of the mount. The gap between image and glass. These are decisions that extend the work, or diminish it.
My advice to buyers: don't open the tube. Take it straight to your framer. It sounds simple. It's harder than it sounds — the instinct to look is strong, and handling a raw archival print carries real risk. Fingerprints, dust, a small crease from rolling it back. Framers know how to handle them. It takes years to develop that understanding.
Ben at Framed Inverloch framed "Fluke." It was the first time I'd printed that image on canvas, which opened up framing options I hadn't considered. Working through those decisions together — understanding the why behind each choice — produced something I couldn't have arrived at alone.
This short video shows some of that process.