So I got a <a href="http://www.avagallery.org">AVA Gallery</a> newsletter and
was reading through the various news of upcoming exhibits and such. When I
noticed that a member's exhibit coming up with submits due middle of February.
Since my New Year's Resolution is to submit at least 1 piece before the end of
the year, this would satisfy that resolution. (Now given that I may satisfy it
so early and with so little effort I may have to retroactively increase my
resolution.) I'm considereing one of two pieces and I just have to decide.

Of course this led to the "I need to mat and frame it" so that I can submit
it. If you've ever had to frame stuff... it's frickin' expensive. Inexpensive
frames with glass can easily run you $20+ for 9x12" to $50+ for 20x30", then
you still need to get matting. Now hopefully you've made something that fits
into a fairly standard size - 9x12, 11x14, 12x16, 12x18, 14x18, 16x20, 20x24,
20x30, etc - and that's a big if... especially for bigger pieces. And now you
have to deal with matting, did you make something for an opening of a standard
size? Maybe not, probably not. So I had to deal with making a custom mat. 

Now my first thought was to hit the art stores in town and see what they had
to offer since I don't have a ton of time to wait for orders to come in, but
first I went online to see what kind of prices I might expect. Now I've used a
mat cutter...once. I don't really know what makes one better than another or
how to judge them. So my first pass into pricing left my boggled, I found hand
cutters for ~$20-$50 and table cutters for between $50-$1500. Yes, you read
that right, $1500. My initial thoughts of what I wanted/needed were a table
cutter that could handle larger mats without too much trouble. (I like working
big.) And since I'm not mass producing them or needing usually to cut lots of
them at a time a relatively inexpensive one ought to serve my needs.

In town one store was out, the other store only had a hand cutter for ~$24. So
I ended up getting that a t-square and a mat board that would fit for ~$42. I
would like to invest in a table one at some point, but hopefully I will be
able to manage at least the few projects I have with the hand cutter.

One might wonder why you need a mat cutter when it is essentially just a razor
blade on a gizmo. Apparently it is difficult to hand cut mat boards, though I
don't really understand why. Everyone I have talked to who has cut mat boards
say it's a big pain in the ass to do without the tool. Plus you can get nice
even 45degree cuts that look nice. I guess in the end part of framing is
presentation and sloppy mat boards can detract from what is important.