Michael's is a massive arts & crafts specialty retailer which turns out to be an international chain of over 1100 stores. This particular Michael's can be found in the shopping center at the intersection of N. Dale Mabry Highway and Ehrlich Road. This is the same shopping center that houses Nutrition S'mart and the Carrollwood Ale House.
I'm not an arts & crafts kinda guy, so I have no business commenting on their massive selection of scrapbooking materials, artificial flowers, art supplies, beading stuff, greeting cards, and a whole bunch of things that would be perfect for school teachers. I'll just acknowledge that the store is huge and that they seem to have every conceivable type of craft supplies right at your fingertips.
Nope, what brought me into Michael's was their excellent picture framing department which had been recommended by a friend. I have a number of really nice underwater photographs which had been signed by the artist, and I wanted to be able to display them on my walls at home. I had absolutely no idea what kind of choices were available to me, but I knew that I didn't want to buy some off-the-shelf generic frame and try to fit these beautiful photos inside.
I brought my artwork into the store, walked back to the counter, and waited until the lady was available to assist me. She looked over the 2 signed photos and the one signed lithograph, and started pulling out colored pieces of heavy cardboard. I learned that these are more-properly referred to as matting materials, and that the color choices are meant to compliment the colors in the photos or artwork. She eventually used two different colored mats for the lithograph (a light purple inner and a medium blue outer). The lady was a real pro because the colors in the lithograph really popped when she was done. After that we discussed the color and type of the frame itself and the type of glass that I wanted to use. Wow, I had no idea that there were so many decisions.
Then she turned her attention to my two signed photos. Each of them were mounted on a black piece of matting, and the artist had signed the mat. Her recommendation was to "float" the photographs between two pieces of glass, and then surround the photos with a black wooden frame. By this point I was just smiling and nodding since I was obviously in the presence of an artistic pro.
Fast forward to about two weeks later and I got a call from the store to say that my artwork was back and ready for me to stop in and see everything. Each piece was wrapped in heavy brown wrapping paper, and my same framing expert carefully unwrapped each piece to show off these amazing wall hangings. Holy crap! These things are gorgeous, and I was there from the beginning to watch her work her magic as she made her recommendations and helped me put everything together. (Photos are attached to show off these amazing wall hangings!) I drove back up there the very next day with three more pieces of artwork, and I should have those results back shortly.
I honestly can't evaluate the rest of the store since I know nothing about the various departments and craft supplies, but if they are as good as my friend in the framing department you'll be in for a real treat. read more