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I grew
up in Poland, Maine since I was 10
years old. My prior years were in Needham,
Massachuesettes.
In 1989 my career as a matting and picture
framer had it’s
origin out in Seattle, Washington on the Air Force base when I was on
active
duty. The base framing shop was
offering courses.
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I have
always been creative so I had many
cross stitch
projects that I wanted to get on the wall, as many of you folks reading
this
might also have. The army base next
door had a photo lab, which I also
learned to develop photos now needing to be hung on the wall.
I took the first course the frame shop had
to offer. From
there I took every course they offered in advanced matting and I loved the creativity I also found
there.
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In 1995,
I moved back home to Maine. I went back to
college to study Dental
Hygiene. While going to school I worked
at two frame shops, Deck the Walls in the Maine mall (no longer there),
and artist
and craftsman. Soon thereafter, my
friends and family asked me if I would frame their artwork. At first I thought, sure I love the
creativitty I might as well keep it close to home.
The volume increased so I
eventually bought my own mat cutter to work from my house. |
I did small items for friends and
family out
of my house as
presents. I realized
I was enjoying my
‘home-work’ better than my real work of dental hygiene.
Many people kept telling me I should do
framing as a business, I have a talent and eye for it.
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After
spending 20 years in the Air Force
reserves, I have
seen many styles of mat cutting. I
realized there designs all around us, if we look with an open and
creative
mind. Some of my designs I have seen
somewhere during my travels, others come from a variety of sources,
and
some are a combination of many put together in my mind coming out as a
newly
fashioned cut. Mat cutting is similar
to sewing in that you can put several designs together coming up with a
unique
version of cuts. Also like sewing some
appear simple and others complicated taking time to cut correctly. |
As of 2000, I have doing designer cut mats
and framing during
my time off from hygiene. Hence, my
part-time career began. I began
teaching adult education classes, to share my knowledge with those
wanting to
do home matting.
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Nov,
2005 I left the dental field and went full-time. Currently, I work out of my home,
keeping
overhead down which I can pass on to my customers.
Recently I have appeared in the Portland,
Lewiston and
other
small town papers. I just finished in
the Auburn Trade show sharing my product with other businesses.
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I network with many other professionals,
photographers,
artists, musicians, florists, limousine services and many others. We are all building relationships to offer
our own clients better services.
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