Ray Perkins is a commercial photographer in Chicago who wanted to display his photographs in frames that were different.
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So last year, he put together a prototype using four flexible wires that curve up from the center of an aluminum plate, which serves as the frame. Each wire has a tiny clip at the end where the photograph or artwork is held in place. The picture, therefore “floats” about 4 inches away from the plate, giving a three-dimensional effect.
Perkins hung two of his frames in the lobby of his studio and “people started looking more at the frames than the pictures,” he says. He patented the idea and is selling his floating frames at several Chicago locations.
Because of the clips, the art can be changed easily and frequently.
“They’re not for archival artwork,” Perkins says. “This is a fun frame, like something you put on the refrigerator taken to the nth degree.”
The frames hold 3 1/2-by-5 or 4-by-6-inch pictures, plus snapshots.
The aluminum frames come in gold, silver, platinum, black, purple and blue.
They’re $48 at Krivoy, 1145 W. Webster Ave., 312-248-1466; Artists’ Frame Service (Jayson Gallery), 1915 N. Clybourn Ave., 312-278-9675; Toshiro, 3309 N. Clark St., 312-248-1487; Table of Contents, 448 N. Wells St., 312-644-9004; and Pieces of Art and Artwear, 644 Central Ave., Highland Park, 708-432-2131.