What in the world is that? Fillet Edition.

So, we get really into framing. I know that sounds weird, like getting really into knitting (which is also awesome), but what can we say? It’s a whole world unto itself with a language all its own. We thought it might be fun to introduce you to that language a little bit. Peel back the curtain, if you will, and give a little peek at what goes on in our heads. Not a big peek, though, we still wanna be friends. So without further ado, what in the world is a fillet?

First of all, it’s a delicious cut of meat, but that’s the wrong fillet. In fact, it’s even pronounced differently. A framing fillet is pronounced fill-it, as in “Fill it up!” So now that you can say it, what is it? A fillet is like a mini frame. Though not required in every framing job, they can serve an important decorative purpose. For example, you can add a piece of fillet molding up next to a regular piece of framing molding to give it a beefier look or a different design. This gives us even more freedom to build just the right frame, but fillets do so much more.

Take a look at this picture above. If you look closely, you can see a bronze fillet inside and touching the main outer frame. This is that beefier, custom frame application we were talking about. But take a look at the central picture. See how it looks like a frame within a frame? That’s a fillet, too. In this case, we used the dark frame and bold matting to draw the eye into the center of the piece, and used a fillet to set the actual art apart from the matting. This turns a nice but smaller picture into a piece of dominant artwork.

The effect is even stronger in this landscape. As you can see, we paired a large, very three-dimensional frame with a similarly deep fillet in a matching color and style. Now it has the depth and strength both physically and visually to stand up to any artistic display.And you can see how we can combine frames, mats and fillets to give a piece a much different look than  just a flat picture inside a frame.

We’ve even got to use fillets to really neat effect in larger shadowboxes, where we can use them to create a series of framed pieces inside of a larger frame. This looks great, for example, on a framed jersey where you might want to include a newspaper article and a certificate of authenticity.

So there you go, more than you ever wanted to know about fillets. Take a closer look when you see professionally framed artwork up in homes and businesses and you’ll see it all over the place. Or stop in the shop and we’ll show you how we can use it to make your piece look great.