"Through the years" class picture mat

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Dancinbaer

Dancinbaer

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Apr 26, 2002
Posts
1,267
Loc
De Pere, WI
I don't know if there is a name for these mats. They have an oval opening in the middle for the senior class picture then twelve smaller oval openings around that one for grades k - 11. My customer wants one that will work for wallet sized photos with a 5x7 in the middle.

I tried laying them out using AutoCAD. I'm having trouble getting the spacing of the wallet size ovals. They can not be equally spaced center to center. Either the side openings get to close, almost touch, or the upper and lower openings get to far apart.

Does anyone have a template for these or dimensions?

I asked another framer if her Wizard had a template, she didn't think so.

Thanks,
 
This sort of thing?
th15SCHOOLMAT.jpg
 
CAframer said:
This sort of thing?
th15SCHOOLMAT.jpg
Click to expand...

Yup, that's it!

j Paul said:
I know we are custom framers, so I am going to say this in a "hushed tone". I see those mats sold at Meijers and Walmart as a double mat, as I remember in the $10-12 range. Just FYI.
Click to expand...

The customer has only been able to find them for the smaller "exchange" size photos. She wants one for "wallet" size photos.
 
There is a standard Wizard template that you could use ... a tad different to the image I posted previously ... to access the Wizard supplied template go to "Add Cut Art", then to the "Openings1" sub-directory, then select "SchoolOval.WCA".

Straight out of the Wiz box, the standard Wiz template fits a 16x20 frame and has a 5x7 in the center with 2x3 sized openings around it.

But, the short answer is yes this sort of thing is right up any CMC's alley.
 
CAframer said:
There is a standard Wizard template that you could use ... a tad different to the image I posted previously ... to access the Wizard supplied template go to "Add Cut Art", then to the "Openings1" sub-directory, then select "SchoolOval.WCA".

Straight out of the Wiz box, the standard Wiz template fits a 16x20 frame and has a 5x7 in the center with 2x3 sized openings around it.

But, the short answer is yes this sort of thing is right up any CMC's alley.
Click to expand...

Thanks Andrew,

I'll check it out.
 
I am not fortunate enough to have a CMC, but several years ago we had a run on these “clock mats”, so we had to do these on an antique, coal burning Oval Master.

Much of my knowledge of trig and geometry has long since evaporated, so I cannot remember exactly the math that went behind this (I remember it got complicated, though) but, at least, I saved several templates.

ClockMat.jpg


These angles will work for any center mat as long as the horizontal and vertical diameters have a two inch difference e.g. 4 x 6, 5 x 7, 8 x 10, etc.

The placement of the small wallet sized photos (typically 1-1/2 x 2” in our area) cannot be placed on an imaginary line (the dotted line in this illustration) which also has the same two inch horizontal/vertical displacement. Rather you must adjust this horizontal diameter downward by the difference in the diameters of the wallet sizes so that the edge differences between the 12 o’clock and 3 o’clock positions are the same.

For example, if we have a 5 x 7 center photo and would ordinarily place the small wallet photos (1-1/2 x 2) on an imaginary circumference of 8 x 10, we would have to adjust this imaginary line to 7-1/2 x 10". (8 – [ 2 – 1.5 ] ) or (8 – 0.5). So this imaginary dotted line would have an oval of 7-1/2 x 10.

We’re lucky enough to have Adobe Illustrator to help us with laying out these templates on paper, but nearly any drawing program will do. We place these paper templates over the mat board and make a dimple in the center of each oval we need to cut. We generally only draw the center oval, 12 o’clock, 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock and 3 o’clock ovals, then rotate the paper template to get the 6, 7, 8 and 9 o’clock positions keeping the large central oval as an anchor point. Once that is done we flip the paper over and repeat for the 4 and 5 o’clock ovals, and rotate the paper once again to get the centers of the 10 and 11 o’clock ovals.

Depending upon my mood and ambition, I will either use trig to determine the horizontal and vertical stops for the OvalMaster, or, more likely, simply measure the horizontal and vertical placements of the dimples on the mat itself and set the Oval Master accordingly.

I also had a template for three inch differences (like for 9 x 12” and 11 x 14” center ovals), but we seldom used it since the whole mat got outrageously large.
 
Great Bill, thanks!!

I have a manual oval cutter. If I can't find someone to do it on a CMC, that template will be a great help.

Thanks again.
 
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