Wizard customer, Ames Cyrway, designed this mat on a Wizard 8000 from her shop “The Framemakers” in Waterville, Maine, and Innrömmun Sigurjóns of Reykjavík, Iceland reproduced it on their Wizard 9000 from halfway around the world!

The project started when she had just finished some of her previous designs for Transformers-related artwork. “A friend had asked me how hard it would be to design one based off character art they had commissioned from Alex Milne, a regular artist for the Transformers comics,” Ames recalled. The only snag—they lived in Iceland! And, while shipping was an option, it was a worst case scenario. “So I gave them the task of hunting down a frame shop that had a Wizard 8000 or 9000, and I went to work designing a triple-layer mat utilizing the Autobot symbol with the bullet hole in PathTrace, and incorporating a heartbeat V-Groove/Pen around the perimeter,” said Ames.

Once the file was ready, Ames emailed it to Innrömmun Sigurjóns of Reykjavík, Iceland, along with detailed instructions on how to cut it, and what mats to use (part of which included Ames hunting down a European Mat Board Specifier for the numbers, and converting inches to millimeters). “I crossed my fingers that my English was clear enough in the instructions,” said Ames. But, as you can see from the finished product, her instructions translated just fine, and the finished matted artwork turned out beautifully! What a cool story of how small our world truly is.

What cool collaborative work are you doing, or could you be doing?

This story just shows that there really are no borders when it comes to creativity, and how mat designs can be created in one corner of the world, and produced somewhere else across the globe. Maybe this opens up some creative ideas on how you might expand your reach beyond your town, state, or even your country? Stretch yourself, don't limit yourself by geography—borders don't matter when it comes to creativity. Go beyond!

Learn more about Ames Cyrway’s work at The Framemakers:
Website: http://www.theframemakers.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The.Framemakers/

Learn more about Innrömmun Sigurjóns—a shop located in Reykjavík, Iceland:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InnrommunSig/

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