Learn along with Ben as his friend and colleague Konrad Eek talks about how he's diversified his photography and framing business.
- This week on The Practicing Photographer, I'm standing here with Konrad Eek, inveterate framer. Konrad has produced an excellent matting and framing course, here in the library, but Konrad that was a while ago. - It has been a while. - And I know that framing's been around for hundreds of years, but still there's progress and development. - That is true. - And I wanted to talk to you today, or actually I wanted you to do most of the talking, about some tools that you started using since that course. You got some cool new gizmos here. - Yeah, what's happened over the past couple of years is I've moved from strictly buying commercially made moldings to making a lot of my own moldings.
I've gotten connected with an interior designer up in Tulsa, that I'm working at a great scale, and also some of the artists I work with have been wanting custom finishes that aren't available elsewhere. - By scale, do you mean quantity of frames or size of frames? Both. - Both, but size particularly. It's interesting when you shift to a much larger frame, a lot of things change, and I've realized now that once I get beyond about four feet in one dimension, I really need to have a helper with me. Weight becomes an issue. Handling the large glazing becomes an issue as well.
Also just the engineering problems relating to scale. The frame has to have a certain degree of strength that it wouldn't have to have otherwise. A 40 by 60 piece of glass weighs quite a bit, and so I generally work with hardwoods. When I first started, one of the issues I had, I understood the use of the dado blade, and frames are really pretty simple, it's just an L shaped piece of wood basically, where you bring the art package, the glazing and art package to the front of the L and hold it in place from behind, with some sort of mounting material.
So what I needed to do was learn how to create the L. When I first started doing it, I'd put the dado blade to the outside of the wood, and as I'd slide it through, I'd get my rabbit cut in the wood, but the blade would also be exposed, and working with hardwoods, the blade tends to push them up and away, and I was concerned about keeping all my fingers. - [Ben] Right. (laughs) - They're handy. - Yes. - So I was at a wood shop in Oklahoma City and asked for their advice, and they taught me the whole concept of a sacrificial fence, which in addition to the regular metal fence that came with the table saw, this is a couple of pieces of plywood laminated together, and then I dadoed out a channel in it to mount this.
It's a standard groove. There's grooves like that on your fence already, but I needed it raised higher so that I could accommodate the wood underneath it, and then once I'd constructed it, I wheeled it over the dado blade and just slowly raised the dado blade to carve out the sacrificial area right here. - Okay. - That's the sacrificial fence, and what it allows me to do is, I very carefully, I'll get the tape out and I'll measure how much depth I want in the dado, and so I'll position the width to make the cut properly and then adjust the height properly, and then I use these things called featherboards to hold the wood.
Instead of using my fingers, these boards are like lots of little fingers and they, I just loosen those and press down until I get a certain amount of tension, and then coming in from the side, this one operates, and I didn't get it screwed down real tight, but this one operates with manual pressure. - So it's slided into the groove. - It's slided into the groove, so I can slide it backwards and forwards, and then I just screw these tight 'til it holds. Then to set this one, you can see as I push in, do you see how these little feather parts of the board flex a little bit? So I want this to come forward to where when I get to that part of the blade, it's still holding it in, and then these are magnets that are activated by a twist.
You can see that once that's in place, it's goin' nowhere. - Wow, so there's nothing going into this groove. This is flat on the bottom, it's just... - Yeah, and they do make featherboards that work with the grooves, but I liked just the ease of operation with this, and it's interesting as a tool, it also has a board that can be bracketed to give downward pressure, but I've found that this is much more effective. - Oh really? - Yeah, these ironed angles seem to flex a little bit, and oak is hard, as is ash.
Most of the woods I work with are real hard, so they're trying to ride up away from the blade. - Okay. - So anyway, once this is all set, then I just start up the saw and gently run it through, and it allows me to keep my hands totally away from the cutting surfaces. - That's very cool. - Yeah. - Uh, these are not very expensive? - No, interestingly enough, this whole modification, including the featherboards, the channel guide, the plywood I had was scrap, but we're talking less than a hundred dollars for all of the parts, and it only took me about an hour to mill it and sand it, and get it all put together, and it just fits into a channel on the side of the original fence, and I've got three screws that I just loosen those three screws and slide that off if I just want to use the regular fence for rippin' lumber down to dimension or whatever.
- So you were saying that you're got a job where you're doing greater quantity. Does this slow you down at all? - I build, after I figured out kind of how much time it takes, I just build it into the cost per foot of the molding. You know, the first few were experimental. Luckily, I was doing one offs, so if I made a mistake, I didn't lose that much money, but you know, people are willing to pay for originality and custom work. There was one side effect that did happen as my volume started to grow, I wore a little paper breathing mask, and you know, because of the beard it didn't sit real tightly, and I was doing a substantial number of frames.
You know, I spent two full days milling oak, and ended up just from what I inhaled around the mask, with a horrible respiratory infection. - Oh boy. - Yeah, so my response to it is I got a much better breathing mask that fits real snuggly around my face, but then I also bought an air scrubber for the shop. - [Ben] Wow. - That is designed specifically to filter sawdust out of the air. Looking at the size of the garage here, it actually cycles all the air in the garage through it about six times every hour. - Wow. - Yeah, and it's made a substantial difference.
- And is that something that sits outside? - No, it's actually, it just hangs from a ceiling in the shop. - Okay. - It's nice. It's got a timer. It's a multi-speed thing, and I've just gotten in the habit, whenever I'm doing woodwork, I turn it on. - Is it noisy? - No, it's not too bad. - And not too expensive? - No, it was funny. It cost more than this, and the filters are fairly expensive, but to extend filter life, what I'll do, after a heavy working session, I'll hit it with a shop vac, and they start to fray eventually, but then I'll replace 'em, but I'll vacuum them to get more use out of 'em.
- Cool, so not that much money to actually gain a substantial amount of health and safety for? - Oh yeah, I would recommend it highly to anybody who's doing a lot of woodworking. You know sanding, table saw, whatever. You generate that sawdust. It just doesn't belong in your lungs. - Very cool. Alright, well thank you Konrad. You can check out more of Konrad's framing instructions and his courses here in the library. This is very cool. Thank you. - My pleasure. Thanks man.
Author
Updated
12/23/2020Released
5/19/2013Skill Level Beginner
Duration
Views
Q: Why can't I earn a Certificate of Completion for this course?
A: We publish a new tutorial or tutorials for this course on a regular basis. We are unable to offer a Certificate of Completion because it is an ever-evolving course that is not designed to be completed. Check back often for new movies.
Related Courses
-
Photography Foundations: Composition
with Ben Long5h 29m Intermediate -
The DIY Photographer
with Joseph "PhotoJoseph" Linaschke2h 39m Intermediate -
Photo Tools Weekly
with Chris Orwig26h 18m Intermediate
-
The Practicing Photographer - New This Week
-
16-bit in Photoshop6m 23s
-
-
Introduction
-
Previous Episodes
-
Choosing a camera5m 27s
-
Let your lens reshape you7m 26s
-
Working with reflections1m 26s
-
Exploring mirrorless cameras7m 25s
-
Using a tripod3m 33s
-
Wildlife and staying present5m 58s
-
Why Shoot Polaroid11m 12s
-
Seizing an opportunity4m 4s
-
Shooting wildlife7m 24s
-
Using a lens hood4m 48s
-
Working with themes2m 48s
-
Setting up an HDR time lapse7m 55s
-
Processing an HDR time lapse7m 55s
-
Scanning Photos5m 37s
-
Jpeg iPad import process3m 17s
-
Warming up3m 26s
-
Taking a panning action shot10m 17s
-
Shooting a silhouette3m 9s
-
Using Lightroom on the road6m 28s
-
Shooting level2m 42s
-
Photoshop and Automator8m 54s
-
Softboxes vs. umbrellas2m 55s
-
Working with hair in post3m 28s
-
Exploring how to use Bokeh5m 38s
-
Shooting stills from a drone6m 57s
-
Working with models2m 40s
-
Tips for shooting panoramas7m 16s
-
Dry sensor cleaning6m 23s
-
Composing in the center2m 48s
-
Vignetting9m 56s
-
Inspire3m 29s
-
Minimizing camera baggage4m 24s
-
Working without a tripod4m 11s
-
Printer options6m 51s
-
Exploring lo-fi printing options11m 58s
-
IOS macro photography gear12m 25s
-
IR Conversion Part 27m 27s
-
Raw editing in Lightroom mobile10m 35s
-
Shooting a macro insect shot13m 5s
-
A brief history of photography12m 19s
-
Shooting with a Petzval lens9m 49s
-
What is a low-pass filter?4m 35s
-
Teleconverters and lenses5m 12s
-
Media card care7m 19s
-
Dual slot4m 2s
-
Exploring smart previews9m 12s
-
Flying and photo batteries5m 41s
-
Partial vignettes on photos8m 38s
-
360 image editing plugins6m 59s
-
Using a gimbal with an SLR8m 13s
-
Choosing a lens6m 27s
-
Switching camera systems7m 42s
-
Using 360 drones5m 41s
-
VR gimbals4m 16s
-
Working with a photo subject14m 26s
-
Posing a photo subject12m 53s
-
Framing and safety7m 7s
-
RAW converter options3m 59s
-
Drone flight7m 19s
-
Basic abstract photography8m 51s
-
Aspect ratio3m 40s
-
Focus lock on your camera2m 11s
-
Using the Astropad app6m 33s
-
Working with dim sunlight6m 33s
-
Configuring dual cards2m 52s
-
Long lens options4m 45s
-
Moving images from catalogs7m 47s
-
Photography education11m 7s
-
In-camera focus stacking9m 52s
-
Exposure isn't everything4m 17s
-
Why shoot film?8m 55s
-
Culling4m
-
Choosing a film camera8m 38s
-
Analog workflow9m 9s
-
Easily produce giant prints10m 15s
-
Luna Display4m 19s
-
Choosing film7m 50s
-
Photo fads4m 46s
-
Portrait lighting techniques8m 32s
-
Diopter control2m 56s
-
Loupedeck for Lightroom6m 48s
-
Printing small3m 37s
-
Lens flare removal6m 28s
-
Paper choice for prints7m 39s
-
Aspect ratio for portraits2m 33s
-
When in doubt2m 24s
-
Looking vs. seeing2m 44s
-
Do you need a carnet?5m 23s
-
Scan large items6m 17s
-
Create an honest portrait5m 34s
-
A portrait assignment3m 23s
-
Am I good?5m 59s
-
Boredom4m 13s
-
Clichés4m 29s
-
Finding inspiration5m 42s
-
An everyday project5m 47s
-
Learning from students4m 56s
-
Life as a project5m 27s
-
Why take a workshop?4m 33s
-
Photographic honesty2m 52s
-
Up to interpretation3m 27s
-
Photographic style3m 40s
-
Photography drills6m 31s
-
Digital chores4m 23s
-
Photos and words4m 11s
-
Stay-at-home exercises3m 45s
-
Understanding your medium2m 28s
-
Darkroom for iOS5m 15s
-
iOS image editing extensions2m 58s
-
On set: Simplicity4m 5s
-
On set: Corners2m 19s
-
On set: The build4m 30s
-
On set: Same pieces, new set3m 18s
-
Choose a price first3m 20s
-
Rewind: Choosing a camera5m 41s
-
On time and in tune3m 3s
-
Avalanche for aperture4m 8s
-
Evaluating a wide-angle lens6m 14s
-
Auction catalogs4m 56s
-
Get out and shoot (safely)3m 45s
-
Do ruts exist?2m 24s
-
- Mark as unwatched
- Mark all as unwatched
Are you sure you want to mark all the videos in this course as unwatched?
This will not affect your course history, your reports, or your certificates of completion for this course.
CancelTake notes with your new membership!
Type in the entry box, then click Enter to save your note.
1:30Press on any video thumbnail to jump immediately to the timecode shown.
Notes are saved with you account but can also be exported as plain text, MS Word, PDF, Google Doc, or Evernote.
Share this video
Embed this video
Video: Framing and safety