How to fit your artwork into a custom aluminium frame

Step 1 — Place your frame face down on a clean, flat surface. At each corner (viewed from the back) you'll see a small metal corner plate held in place with screws. Using a flat-head screwdriver, loosen the screws on both the bottom left and bottom right corner plates. You will only need to remove one side or 'length' of the frame to add your artwork. 

Step 2 — Slide the bottom/loosened section of the frame out completely.

Step 3 — Slide out the glazing and backing board from inside the frame.

Step 4 — Peel the protective film from both sides of the glazing. Note that there are two layers of film — one on each face — and they can be difficult to spot. Try pressing your fingernail into a corner to lift the edge if needed.

Step 5 — Sandwich your artwork between the backing board and the glazing, keeping the inner face of the glazing as clean as possible.

Step 6— Carefully slide the glazing, artwork and backing board back into the frame together.

Step 7 — Slide the bottom section (i.e. the one that you loosened earlier) of the frame back into position. Check that all four corners meet neatly and make any small adjustments needed, then tighten all corner plate screws securely.

Step 8 — You'll see that we have included a pack of bow springs in your order. An even number of the springs (the number we will send will be higher the bigger the frame size you order) need to be pushed underneath each side of the frame in order to secure the back board, artwork and glazing within the frame. To add in the bow springs, push each bow spring down so that the natural arch of the spring flattens and carefully slide it in between the back board and the frame. The top of the arch of the bow spring should be facing up against the inside of the frame, in order to ensure a nice snug fit. Please take extra care when fitting bow springs as they can ping out and potentially cause injury. Keep your face away from the frame while adding the spring or levering the spring out if necessary (always use a screwdriver if you need to remove a spring). Never lean directly over the spring. Always cover the spring with your hand when removing them.

Step 9 — Hanging fittings: depending on the frame size you've ordered we will either include sawtooth hangers (which will arrive attached to the back board of your frame) or keyhole hangers and cord. If you look at the keyhole hangers you'll see that one side has a hole for threading the hanging cord, and the other side has a screw set inside a square plate. This square plate is the part that needs to be slotted into the channel inside the back of the frame (i.e. the same channel that the corner plates are screwed into). Simply hold the keyhole hanger at an angle into the channel of the frame and then straighten it before sliding it to the desired location within the channel, before tightening it with a screwdriver. Repeat this process on the opposite side of the frame by measuring the location of the first keyhole hanger you added — use this to ensure both hangers are the same distance down each side of the frame. 

Step 10 — If you're using hanging cord/keyhole hangers you can then thread the cord through the hole on each side and tie the cord to your desired level of tightness. If your frame has sawtooth hangers only you can simply use these to hang your frame.