Many individuals locate cutting a double mat a aggravating secret. It seems basic and simple but it seldom turns out appropriately unless of course you know the specialist photograph framer’s mystery for chopping it properly.

A double mat is not what a lot of folks feel it is. A double mat in no way involves chopping through two thicknesses of mat board. Fairly a double mat is just two single mats stacked collectively, two solitary mats with two different dimensions windows stacked jointly so the window of the underneath-mat seems as a band of shade about the inside of the window of the in excess of-mat.

When the framer grasps what a double mat really is, the appropriate way to lower it looks obvious. Just get two mats of the exact same total dimensions and reduce a window in 1 a bit more compact than the window in the other, and then tape them collectively.

Really, it is feasible to minimize a double mat this way, but the framer practically constantly runs into difficulties acquiring the perimeter edges of the two mats to align while he’s getting the band of coloration to line up in the window.

These alignment issues stem from the truth that the unique 32″x40″ sheet of mat board may not have been sq. when acquired. Squareness in this occasion will not refer to the form of the mat board but to whether it was minimize at precise right angles. In truth most mat board is not perfectly square when you get it.

This slight discrepancy in the squareness, nevertheless, will not make a difference a lot when reducing a one mat. It only becomes an situation when chopping a double mat, due to the fact a double mat demands two complete dimension sheets, a single for every single shade, two full measurement sheets that may be somewhat out of sq., but not relative to each other.

So when the framer cuts a window in 1 marginally scaled-down than the other and attempts to tape them with each other he notices that they are not flawlessly aligned alongside the perimeter edges. He jostles them all around right up until the perimeter edges line up, and then he notices that the band of color in the window is out of alignment.

The answer is easy. End making Ultimate mats to line up the perimeter edges. It’s not needed. By creating the all round measurement of the under-mat a bit smaller than the all round dimension of the more than-mat you get rid of the need to have to align the perimeter edges. Now all you have to do is line up the band of coloration in the window and you’ve got got it.

Greedy this, you might now just take the approach of reducing two various dimension home windows in two distinct coloured mats of the same overall measurement, and then trimming the edges of the under-mat and taping the two mats jointly. This can operate, but it really is not nearly as quickly and effective and as the expert method for slicing a double mat, the secret that eludes numerous amateur framers. Listed here it is: Start by trimming the under-mat smaller sized all round. For example, if your frame size is 16″x20″, trim the general dimensions of the underneath-mat to 15½”x19½”, and leave the more than-mat at sixteen”x20″.

Up coming minimize the window in the over-mat. Then – and here is the most startling thing about the technique – tape the underneath-mat to the back of the over-mat ahead of you minimize the window in it.

The logic of this is distinct when you understand that when you lower the over-mat, as you did a moment back, you employed the perimeter edge of the in excess of-mat in opposition to the mat information of the mat cutter as you marked and minimize it. Now, as you lower the under-mat, simply because you have trimmed it smaller sized total and taped it to the back of the above-mat, you will still have the perimeter edge of the more than-mat towards the mat information as you mark and reduce it. As a result, whatsoever you reduce in the beneath-mat have to occur out flawlessly aligned with what you cut in the more than-mat.

With this strategy you get ideal alignment every single time. What’s more, when you finish slicing you are finished the two mats are previously taped together you never have to fuss all around with alignment as you attempt to tape the two mats with each other.

Keep in mind to substitute the drop-out piece back again in the window of the in excess of-mat ahead of taping the underneath-mat to it. You will require the steadiness via the middle of the in excess of-mat as you cut the below-mat. But when you are finished chopping, the double fall-out piece will fall out and you will be concluded. Voila! A perfectly aligned double mat.