Selling small frames and prints for purely decorative uses.

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Not your average framer
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Location: Devon, U.K.
Organisation: The Dartmoor Gallery
Interests: Lost causes, saving and restoring old things, learning something every day
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Selling small frames and prints for purely decorative uses.

Post by Not your average framer »

There has been a bit of a trend for people looking for nick nacks for putting on display shelves and places like that. Before covid people used to go around car sales boots looking for stuff like that, but there are precious few car boots sales around near me at all and perhaps this is the same around the whole country. Charity shops know all about people looking for nick nacks as well and it's been going on a while. Small frames with strut backs which will stand up easily on small shelves can be interesting small sales items. When I first started, I bought all lot of stock and equipment from a framers in Totnes and much of this became the basis of my shop. They have a massive collection of 5 inch by 3 1/2 inch strut backs, which I took no notice of. Most of them get thrown away, but I found a few while tidying up which must have escaped being throw out. As it turns out, old framers in popular tourist areas used to buy up old job lots of local post cards cheap and cut these down to fit little frames like these. I never paid much attention to these and did not understand that therewas any kind of market for this stuff.

To be honest, it has taken me a very long time to find out what this is all about. These were always intended as cheap items, but over the years people have become interested in stuff like this again. It's a little bit of a trendy thing with some people and there's a bit of a revial been slowly developing amoung some people, This even a name for it, it's called self litter it is getting a little bit of a following again and some of this stuff it slowly creeping into the collectibles, an salvage decor market. It's more popular in some places than others, but old junk shops are starting to sell this stuff. I used to sell old engraving type prints and I've still got some left including areasonable number of little minature ones. They were always something, or nothing, but I used to mount and sell them from my secondhand books and antique prints shop. Nice litle mounted print usually sold for a fiver and that was back in the 1990's, Maybe there's still a little bit of money still to be made doing stuff like that. I have a large number of old WilliamThakery engraving with printed captions which maybe are worth a try. They are actull antique print from the victorian era.

Amazingly Simons still list these little 5 inch by 3 1/2 inch strut backs at 35 pence each plus VAT. Maybe there a bit of potential in stuff like this still!
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
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prospero
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Location: Lincolnshire

Re: Selling small frames and prints for purely decorative uses.

Post by prospero »

I think part of the problem is that people don't get photos printed very much nowadays. While they take a LOT more,
they keep them on their phones and PCs in digital format. I found 5x4" a popular size for stand-up frames. 7x5 not so popular
but 8x6" is. The biggest I'd go to is 10x8".

I made 100s using offcuts of the more 'showy' mouldings and nothing less than about 1" wide. Small bits of wide mouldings are
good to make stand-ups with as they need more presence. I did a stock of mounts to fit them - e.g. 8x6 with a 6x4 window.
(I also did about 300 ovals which I still have most of. :P ) The material costs for these was essentially 0. The only things that actually
cost were the clips and bars, the rivets, glue and v-nails. The bulk was just scrap. You need to do these in batches to minimise the labour
costs. I priced them to sell. All under £10. You have to shift them rapidly to make it worthwhile. :lol:

Going the hand-finished route, you have to make them more classy looking and individual. And hike up the price. :wink:

** One thing with pre-made strut backs is you can't account for the width of the moulding. They are made with the strut going to
the inside of the frame and I like them going to the outside for max stability. I also don't like ones where the strut goes diagonally.
I always do them with two bars so you can switch them to stand either way. I made templates so I could drill about 6 backs at once.
Watch Out. There's A Humphrey About
Not your average framer
Posts: 11013
Joined: Sat 25 Mar, 2006 8:40 pm
Location: Devon, U.K.
Organisation: The Dartmoor Gallery
Interests: Lost causes, saving and restoring old things, learning something every day
Location: Glorious Devon

Re: Selling small frames and prints for purely decorative uses.

Post by Not your average framer »

Hi Peter,

I am thinking that the market for my would be little antique engraved prints which I already have. These prints are genuine antique prints and there would not be any question of making hand finished frames at all, that's just pointless. I have got a useful quantity of some old discontinued narrow and ornated factory finished mouldings, which were original made by magnolia mouldings. How long ago were they made? They even look antique as well! They definitely don't owe me anything and I've probably had them for about 20 years as well, I have not got a great deal of use for them, so why not!

I have been checking with Simons and the clip and bar 5 inch by 3 1/2 inch strut back have gone, they still have plenty in the pressed fibre board matterial and these are only 19 pence plus the VAT each, so there very little work and almost zero material cost, so I'm considering trying this. It's almost like something for nothing, so maybe worth a try after all.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
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prospero
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Location: Lincolnshire

Re: Selling small frames and prints for purely decorative uses.

Post by prospero »

A chap I knew used to routinely cut all his offcuts into little frames and put any old picture in them. Right down
to postage stamps. :lol: He would do this all year and come Christmas would set a stall out near his back door and
sell them to tourists for <£10. He did have the advantage of being in the middle of the Lincoln Christmas market area
with a footfall of 250K+ :ninja: . His back door opened on a car park and the stall was inside his property so he didn't
have to pay for the pitch.

Over the three days of the event he sold enough to re-carpet his shop. :lol:
Watch Out. There's A Humphrey About
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