PUBLICATION CENTER

When Somers Custom Framing won an award from Westchester Magazine, Ginny Ryan printed out a sign on PhotoTex PSA fabric to let people know about it! The baseball image is part of a hand-painted baseball mural she created in a customers' home.

Somers Custom Framing in Somers, NY is a full-service framing business run by custom-framing expert Ken Ryan and his artist wife Ginny. Like many well-run framing businesses, the company has diversified in recent years and now provides a complementary array of graphic design, photo-restoration, and wide-format printing services.

For example, in addition to giclee printing, Somers Custom Framing prints photo enlargements on canvas which Ginny Ryan can hand embellish with over-painting or texturing. The Ryans also run a retail gift shop as well as an art gallery that sells Ginny’s work, original oil paintings by other local artists, plus limited editions, giclees, custom prints, and posters. As they explain on their website, “We provide our clients with top-quality products and services to address all of their personalized decorating needs, from picture framing to mural printing.”

As an artist, Ginny Ryan has hand painted several murals for various clients. But when certain projects require it, she is happy to use her Epson Stylus Pro 9800 print murals, too.

When restaurant consultant Bonnie Saran wanted to create photo murals for the new Bollywood Bistro Indian restaurant in Fairfax, VA, Ginny Ryan used Photo Tex PSA fabric from LexJet to create several film-themed murals using stills of some of the best-known stars in Bollywood. She then used a variety of other materials from LexJet to print other graphics for the restaurant interior, including window signage and menu boards that repeated the film-themed motif that was featured on the mural. (Read more details about the project in the post about Somers Custom Framing on Studio LexJet.)

Ginny Ryan used PhotoTex PSA fabric to create a collection of photo murals for the Bollywood Bistro in Fairfax, VA. The murals were designed by restaurant consultant Bonnie Saran. Ryan printed the filmstrip motif on smaller signs and a menu board on 8 Mil Production Gloss Photo Paper that was mounted for display in the window. She printed graphics on LexJet Absolute Backlit 7 Mil to decorate some backlit cubes in the restaurant’s bar area.

Ginny Ryan has also used Photo Tex PSA to create photo merchandise she can sell in her store. For example, she prints 20 x 30 college dorm posters along with packs of “Word-Art.” Each pack features graphically designed words (e.g. Peace, Imagine) that are printed out on Photo Tex at about 5 in. high and 12 in. wide.

Somers Custom Framing uses inkjet-printable 3P Country Cotton FR from LexJet to produce three different sizes of photo pillows.

“We have packaged the words in sets of three and they have become very popular with college kids, teens, and tweens.” says Ginny. “And, since we put up the Photo Tex posters with a sign that promotes them as Removable College Dorm Posters, we have begun receiving orders for custom photo prints on Photo Tex.”

Somers Custom Framing will enlarge photos that have personal meaning to the client, print them on Sunset Select Canvas, and convert them into one-of-a-kind pieces of art by painting over the image with acrylics or oils. Ginny uses the Hahnemuhle clearcoat spray to fix the inks before she overpaints, and notes that “Golden Paints offers a great line of gels and mediums to mix with acrylic or oil paints to achieve great texture in overpainting."

Somers Custom Framing also uses inkjet-printable 3P Country Cotton FR from LexJet to produce three different sizes of photo pillows. Since launching the pillow designs eight months ago, they have sold more than 200 pillows. Ginny also promotes her ability to produce custom stationery on heavyweight fine-art paper.

“Our ability to create, new exciting products using different materials by LexJet is a fantastic asset to the store,” says Ginny Ryan. Whenever she is unsure about which material to use for certain projects, she calls on LexJet account specialist Jennifer Hepner for advice.

“Whenever we have a new product idea, Jennifer is always available to troubleshoot the possible printing material choices with us.” says Ginny. “The wealth of knowledge she has about the materials LexJet offers is invaluable.”

For more information about Somers Custom Framing, visit their website: www.somersframing.com