Customer Reviews

Home Book of Picture Framing: 2nd Edition

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I purchased this book based on the positive comments left by the other reviewers here. This is a wonderful book. Possibly the best how-to-book on any subject I have read. The text is easy to follow and the pictures used to clarify the text were obviously selected with a great deal of care. I can not stress the choice of photographs used to illustrate this book enough, they are superb. The book explains each process in a systematic manner. You are never left with the feeling that something is missing. From the table of contents to the index, the quality of this book comes through. The address, telephone numbers, email, and description of services for 85 different suppliers are listed. It even covers the economics of purchasing ready-made frames at discount prices. This is truly a comprehensive work on framing for the novice and intermediate framer. This is one book purchase you will never regret.

Accessible, readable and right on target. Clear instructions tell you how, with what and why. Very good resource for techniques, tools, materials and even a little design theory. An excellent book for both the crafts-person, or the crafts-person wanna-be. You can get confidence to start almost anything from reading this book. Beware, you may even want to buy tools! Even if you never make anything, you'll get tips on ready-made frames, glass, hanging etc. etc.

This was the first book I bought when I became interested in picture framing. Since then I have read many other books on the subject, met many professional picture framers, taken courses in the subject, joined the Professional Picture Framers Association, and basically learnt much much more about the subject. I CANNOT recommend this book to any one who is new to picture framing. First, the information is scattered between many chapters, and is difficult to pull together. Second, many very important topics receive very little coverage. Third (the major problem for me): the author is first-and-foremost, a wood worker, and this is reflected in the book. Thus, there are many chapters discussing tools that most professional picture framers would never buy, methods that most professional picture framers would never use, inadequate discussion of conservation framing vs. non-conservation methods, mat cutting, etc. If you are interested in making your own wood picture frames, this is the book for you. If you are new to the subject or are interested in many of the other aspects of picture framing, you would be much better off with one or more books by David Logan, Vivian Kistler, or others.

This book gives the reader a lot of good information so they can start framing their own art work with little or no prior experience. The author gives lots of specific examples of tools and materials. He tells you where to get them and which ones work the best.

I bought this book as one of several to get started in framing. After lots of reading and research and actual framing, I realize how out-of-date this book is. The state of the framing art has advanced a lot since 1988. Much of the book is devoted to techniques, tools, and materials that have been superceded by far superior ones. A much better book is "Mat, Mount, and Frame It Yourself" by M David Logan.

Unlike a lot of how-to-books that raise more question than they answer, Ken's book will actually explain the framing process to you. It fills in the gaps and gives a complete picture of what it would take to start a framing business - with useful and specific information - sometimes down to the part number of the equipment involved. A really useful book.

Needing to get up to speed on framing in a hurry, I borrowed 5 or 6 framing books from the library, including this one by Mr. Oberrecht. Though most had at least a few helpful tips or photographs, this is the only one that I will go out and buy, because it's definitely a keeper. Very thorough, very detailed, and full of great tips and suggestions. Most importantly, the author's writing style is so helpful and generous - much more so than most "how to" books I've read. Reading this book is like sitting in a pro woodworker's shop and listening while he patiently explains every little detail of what you need to do to be successful at this art. I kept thinking of a line from an old T. Rex song: "Book after book, I get hooked every time the writer talks to me like a friend." Though I only needed to learn about framing for a specific project, this book makes turning it into a hobby sound like it would be a lot of fun.

I am sending a piece of art to New York to be in a group show and it had to be great. Framing the piece would've been $250 to $300, hence the reason I bought the book. This book is very thorough, written in layman's terms and very easy to follow. I was extremely pleased with the matting section and suggestions on types of frames to use for different types of art. I highly suggest picking up this book!!

This book will help you build a frame and to mat it, but you have to read 30 pages of useless information to get there. There is no process outlined, what I mean is there are no steps such as
1 do this
2 do that
I had to use stickum notes to put in pages that I found some useful information. You might find step 1 in a process in chapter 5 and have to go back to chapter 2 to find the next step.
There is useful information but I would not recommend this book.

This book covers just about everything on framing, but it doesn't really give you a feel for the whole process of framing. The topics really don't build well on each other and there's nowhere to get an overall perspective on doing a complete framing job. The author rightfully is trying not to be too prescriptive but he just presents so many options that you never get a good feel for what you should do. If you are into making frames though I think that part of the book works pretty well.