Recently, David Lantrip, MCPF, GCF, spoke to members of the Professional Picture Framers Association (PPFA)Website about how a computerized mat cutter (CMC) can do more than cut simple mats. Among other benefits, he discussed how they can make it easier to cut cove mats without getting into the math, since that would involve trigonometry. I don’t own a CMC, and can’t justify buying one, but the cove mat problem piqued my interest. Now I’ve done the analytic geometry necessary to calculate important angles, and it’s not that difficult. But in preparing for this article, I discovered that none of that is really necessary.
What’s a “Cove Mat”?
Cove mats, as used in this article, are essentially shadowboxesDefined with sloped sides.
“How Do I Make One?”
In our new article, Making Cove Mats, we show how easy it is to make a simple cove mat. The most difficult math you’ll need is to find the hypotenuse of a right triangle. But then, if you want to get fancy, like making the slopes of the cove walls each different, or making a cove mat with a non-rectangular base, then things will get a little more complicated. We explain that too. And for you math aficionados, the derivations of all formulas are just a click away.
Below are the overhead, oblique, and side views of a model cove mat we made to verify the example plan used in the preparation of this article and shown to their right. It was designed (in Photoshop, only because that’s what I had available) to show off all of the options. I shrank the plan enough to fit on a letter-sized stationary and then printed on our thickest paper.
Q & A
“Even if we had the software to make a plan like that, how would we transfer it to the matboard?”
That is discussed in the articles.
“So why would anybody need a cove mat like this?”
Do I have to think up everything? My day job is technical support for a wildlife photographer. Editing pictures, printing, matting, and framing are all part of my job description (as well as maintaining our website and blog (even though English was my worst subject in school)). We put Nancy’s work in simple frames, but more challenging projects approach from all angles. I prefer not to reinvent the wheel, but when I can’t find a solution, I need to create a solution. I share these technical details hoping to stimulate the imagination of creative geniuses. (I post the math partly to help teachers answer the pervasive question, “when are we ever going to use this shit?”)
Enjoy the article!
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