Matting question

I think the matte would forever hold the nicotine smell. Why not get a new matte. A good shop would be able to cut a new one to fit, mattes on their own are inexpensive and it would be really fresh then.

As an ex-smoker I can tell you that it's near impossible to get the smell out of the mat and I had new mats made for my old stuff. I got most of the yellow nicotine stains out of the pieces by washing them, but not all, I found that spraying the pieces with upholstery cleaner worked sometimes and helped a lot to take the smell out. I did eventually get rid of the smell in the fabric by letting the pieces sit outside on my covered patio and, if possible, in the sun, but it took a long time to disappear completely and some pieces still have a bit of yellow staining that I simply gave up on.

We chose mats for the older pieces that had an older look so the starkness of the new didn't clash too badly with the old. My framing store worked with me and we were absolutely hysterical giggling when we were looking for old, slightly worn mats, rather than spanking new clean ones that customers most often want.

Good luck.

Lucille.

I'm a lurker too, but I have an answer for your question. I'm going on

6 years as a custom picture framer, and it is impossible to get the smoke smell and stain off of your matting. New matting won't cost too much (depending on what you get of course, fabric and textures are more). Make sure to request archival mats though - not all frame shops use them as the standard and non-archival will injure your work over time. Good luck!

Group: rec.crafts.textiles.needlework Date: Fri, May 20, 2005, 6:44pm (MDT+6) From: snipped-for-privacy@verizon.net (Carolyn=A0Wagner)

Soak the pieces in a warm solution of Oxy Clean. I had a piece that was extremely dirty and water stained. Soaked it for about 4 hours and it looks new. A friend did the same with inherited pieces that were badly stained with nicotine and they're good as new, too.

I think the paper of the mats would retain the odor forever. As someone else said, new mats don't cost much.

chris c The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

I was afraid I'd have to get new ones. They are custom (possibly licensed because of their shape, I'm not sure) and are definitely not in the budget right now. But I will clean the fabric itself and wait until I can afford new mats to reframe it. Thanks for taking time to answer me.

Carolyn W.