Cels Forum

I have spent anywhere from $90 to $195 to frame a cel. Most of the cels I frame are kinda rare and have cost
upwards of $500, so spending $195 on a good framing job is worth the money to me. 

For framing I have a UV treated plexiglass for the front (the UV treated stuff costs more than normal plexi but gives the best UV protection I could find, archival quality). The mattes are all acid free and I go for the colored cores, as opposed to the basic white cores that you get with standard mattes. The colred cores ad a nice effect to the whole framing job. The cels are raised above the background to give a nice depth perception. The rear has a thin piece of normal plexiglass that works with the front piece to sandwich all the layers, then special tape is wrapped around the edge of this package to seal the contents from the atmosphere. This makes the cel hermetically sealed off, which is nice when you have days of rain and the house begins to feel a bit damp. Finally the cel and everything is put in a nice glossy metal frame, usually black. I like the metal frames for cels, since they seem to fit them better. Kinda like wood frames look nice with oil paintings, so metal frames look nice with glossy cels.

I have all my cels framed at a local mom and pop style frame shop. I know the owners and routinely spend a half hour with them, on each cel, picking out the right colored mats and all. The extra personal service and the fact that I always know who is working on my cels is worth a lot to me. Much better than taking them to a chain store. I called a few places till I reached them and asked each a series of questions about cel framing that I got off the net. They were the only ones that answered the questions correctly and knew what they were doing.

For me, paying for a top notch frame job is worth it. I feel much better about collecting expensive cels when I know they will be kept safe in the frames, and that I will be able to hang them on my walls and enjoy them, which for me is the main reason to collect them.

I hope this helps...

If anyone is in the SF bay area and wants the number to the shop I use, drop me a line.

Kane