This is a frame design I never would have come up with if this particular print hadn’t come through the door. The contemporary (2019) block print, “A Glimmer of Abundance,” is by Northwest artist Charles Spitzack (b. 1987). We set the 10″ x 8″ piece in a 2-1/4″ light tan solid core rag mat just a shade darker than the paper. The stained walnut frame is 1″ wide. 
In framing woodblocks, there’s a special pleasure that comes from the fact that the frame is made of the same material as the block that’s used to make the print. That commonality affords unique opportunities for achieving harmony between the picture and frame. As with other block prints—like this, and this, and this—I created a frame that you could, if you wanted, actually make prints from. I raised a flat strap all around, and at the corners mimicked the wave pattern in the print. Also in deference to the line and form in the print, I relieved the straight sides of the frame by curving them in a bit at the corners. That also harmonized nicely with the strap pattern.
Making frames from scratch, it is more natural for each frame to be unique to the picture. That’s one of the chief arguments for, and key virtues of, the studio frame-making model.
Check out Charles Spitzack’s woodblocks on his website…