FRAMING MOMENTS

A page torn from that notebook you bought in Paris, filled with scribbles only decipherable to you. A child’s first grade art project. A faded photo of the great-grandmother you’ve heard stories about, but never met. These are the artifacts of our lives, the incidental ephemera that tends to accumulate in drawers or boxes, which then pile up attics, shuttering precious moments in time out of sight (but never out of mind). Kathy Rafferty, owner of Lake Forest Frame & Design Studio, has been helping customers preserve and protect these types of memories for more than two decades—often taking the time to meet and get to know the customer’s personal story and why the object being framed is so important to them. “Everything is special, or they wouldn’t be framing it … so it means something,” says Rafferty, who will celebrate her 82nd birthday this month (along with her first great-grandchild). “So first I try to find out why they want to frame this particular piece, and then I look at the object—usually talking to them at the same time.” Through this process, Rafferty makes recommendations not only about a frame style or color but also special finishes that can turn a scrap of paper into a treasured heirloom. “It’s very personal,” she adds. “Framing is very personal.” A trend she’s been seeing lately is a renewed interest in framing diplomas, and not just for the newly graduated. “I did one for a gentleman who was in his 80s. He said, ‘I think it’s about time I framed this … it’s been in drawer for years’.” Rafferty and her team “did it up just like he was 22 years old.” His response is something she’ll never forget. “he was so excited,” she says. “I think it meant a lot to him, but it did to me too.” Rafferty explains that she was first inspired to get into the framing business by an experience she had while teaching art at Lake Forest High School. “They were having an art show and they had a matte cutter there, and I figured it out,” she says. “It made such a difference to those students, to see their work so nicely matted.” So, she began pursuing it professionally, and fell in love with the art of framing. “The people are so great to meet and I’m still going at it,” adds Rafferty, a Lake Forest native who is the oldest of eight children, now proud mother to five with nine grandchildren. “I still like it. I love what I do.”

Lake Forest Frame & Design Studio is located at 204 E. Westminster in Lake Forest. For more information, call 847-234-0755.