Business & Tech
A New Framing Technique: Mat Shimmers
A local business owner recently trademarked a new framing technique.
After three years, John Timony, owner of , recently showcased a new trademarked technique for framing at Wine About Winter on Saturday.
The new technique, Mat Shimmers, enhances matt boards by adhering recycled-glass beads onto the boards. Timony says it’s another device to complement objects being framed.
“I was looking for subtle additive effect that wouldn’t become the main object in the picture,” Timony said. “The beads allow light to go in and refract itself out, as opposed to reflect. In that refraction process, it’s picking up the color behind it, or what it’s sitting on.”
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It's all in the Light
Light plays a big part in the visual effect of Mat Shimmers.
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“The nice thing about the bead is it refracts differently at different angles, like light going into water,” he said. “When the light is at a different angle, sometimes you get a high luster, other times it’s very soft, that’s why we use the name shimmer because it’s not glimmer, it’s not glitter, it’s not glitzy, it’s kind of a soft muted shimmer and it just adds a little bit of effect.”
The technique works better on lighter colors than it does darker hues, “the lighter colors tend to give it some vibrancy,” Timony said.
He has already sold some Mat Shimmer kits that include glass beads and adhesives. The kits offer different quantity of beads and adhesives so they can enhance frames ranging from 3 square-foot to 15 square foot. The 3-square-foot kit retails for $25. Customers can also place orders for just glass beads or adhesives.
Bedazzled Rock
The idea for Mat Shimmers started in the summer of 2008. Timony wondered what could give a point of difference to his frame store versus big box stores.
“That’s when I thought, I’ve got these beads sitting around, what if?” Timony said.
He had seen examples of glass beads used to provide nighttime reflectivity on roads and highway and decided he would try something similar. That summer Timony decided to bedazzle the rock in his yard.
“I literally used clear [adhesive], painted the rock outside my mail box and then while it was wet I poured glass beads all over it,” Timony said. “In the summertime that thing illuminates just from the light passing by and I thought, wow, if I can do that, what if I put them on a picture? Is it going to be too gaudy? Is it going to be too glitzy? Or is it going to be soft and subtle?”
The beads ended up giving a soft and subtle shimmer to the rock and Timony spent the rest if that summer experimenting with the size and types of glass beads and adhesives.
He says the secret to Mat Shimmer’s subtle effect is all in the beads because not all glass beads come from the same type of recycled glass, and not all sizes work.
Inexpensive Way to Glamorize Frames
The idea to retail Mat Shimmers didn’t click until a customer came in with a swatch cloth with glass beads.
“It only confirmed that what I was already doing was a less expensive way,” Timony said. “It’s very very expensive to put glass beads on cloth.”
In addition, the beaded clothes gave off a bright and intensive effect.
“I wasn’t looking for bright, intensive – I was looking for subtle additive effect,” he said.
That’s why Timony decided to use a different style of beads from what’s used on fabric. What’s more, he says glass bead have more versatile usage in the framing industry.
“Cloth is limited to whatever manufacture uses,” Timony said. “Whereas in the framing industry, with all the variety and diversity of colors with matt boards, the glass beads is the same and yet when you put it on a variety of colors, you get a totally different effect.”
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