Artistic Angles framing shop moves from Derby to Riverside

After a quarter century in the custom framing business, Sue Smith still enjoys helping customers present and preserve favorite images.

“You bend over backward for people and they’ll love you forever,” said Smith, owner of Artistic Angles.

Smith is moving her shop from Derby to a small center on West 13th Street in Wichita’s Riverside neighborhood, just across from Minisa Park. She expects to be open there later this month, with her Derby location remaining open in the meantime.

This week, Smith, her husband and father-in-law were working nights to create shop and display spaces in the 1,000-square-foot Riverside spot, which previously operated as a Buddhist center.

“I’m hoping there’s good karma in that,” she joked.

Smith sells custom frames, mats and glass for photographs, paintings and just about anything else of a roughly two-dimensional nature that people want to display.

“In 15 years, I’ve taken about 5,000 orders – by myself,” she said.

Not surprisingly, she’s been asked to frame some unusual items, from a patch of Astroturf from an old football stadium to a cave bear’s jaw.

Family photographs, artwork and keepsakes such as vintage maps and programs are more typical. Because she’s an independent dealer, Smith said, she can offer a wider variety of frames than big-box stores.

One service she offers is “conservation” framing, which means choosing matting made of non-acidic material that won’t harm printed materials, and glass that helps prevent fading.

“If you want to preserve something, it needs to be done right,” she said.

In addition to new frames, Smith sells a small number of used and consigned frames and prints. She also does custom matting and framing for customers who already own a frame.

Smith had operated her business on K-15 in Derby for 15 years and worked for Michaels craft and retail chain for a decade before that. She originally went to work for Michaels because “I needed a job” but soon found she liked framing.

Smith said she comes from a family of artistic types and a hearing impairment she has “made me more visually aware” in some ways.

She said the commercial development of Rock Road in Derby has shifted shopping activity away from K-15, and the opening of a Hobby Lobby store there also cut into her clientele. While the city of Derby is making some efforts to promote K-15, she felt she’d fare better somewhere else.

She thinks her new location is far enough away from a couple of other areas with custom framing shops – the Douglas Avenue Design District and College Hill – to make it convenient for Riverside residents.

Smith isn’t sure, but she thinks Riverside residents might be more “artsy” or otherwise inclined to frame items than those in some new parts of the city (although she’ll welcome customers from anywhere).

“I thought Riverside might be good for that,” she said. “That’s what I hope.”

This story was originally published January 4, 2017 at 6:33 PM with the headline "Artistic Angles framing shop moves from Derby to Riverside."