Surprise surprise FATG Awards

[Phill]

I Have just noticed the FATG awards for 2008, again no surprises, Arqadia and Demontfort are best again, what made me LOL was the Art retailer of the year, Lovelys Gallery, sponsored by Demontfort, at the moment has a sale on Ebay, selling demontfort Limited edition prints at trade prices or below to the public, ie: Sheree Valentine Daines 'A Day to Remember II ' L.E £200, its on the Demontfort site for £510. Now thats the sort of people we want in the Industry, I THINK NOT.

[Roboframer]

I ordered 6 mouldings in varying quantities from Arqadia today. Half of them were out of stock - one 'til August!

They all started with a '6'; they're all coming off my sample wall, like the 2 last week, the 4 the week before that .........


DeMontfort can go take a leap too - 95% of their stuff is now on canvas board and up to 4 times the price of the same sized stuff on paper.

[kev@frames]

perhaps its time for the framers forum awards?

[Frame Faery]

Yes, it is about time there was a reality check.
Real awards for real people in the art & framing industry.



The best thing about the whole awards "do" was the framing awards, a superb chance to see the same print framed over 25 different ways.
Such a shame the guild artists exhibition fizzled out . . . whats in it for Artists now I wonder?

should provoke some lively discussion - I hope.

[markw]

Difficult to have a reliable awards ceremony from an organisation that represents a tiny fraction of the businesses in that industry. In reality how many of us are impressed by a business winning an award from the FATG?

Used to buy from Demontfort - haven't seen a rep for the last twelve months - I had assumed that they decided that selling direct was the most profitable way to trade and that the little galleries such as mine weren't worth the effort. Glad they did as I switched to a couple of really nice businesses whose output has been selling really well.

[Roboframer]

If I can find the link to that gallery's ebay items I'm going to email DeMontfort with the link and ask what they think.

We have dropped or not even looked at quite a few suppliers on the craft side because of other businesses doing similar things.

Enesco on the other hand - giftware - huge company incorporating Border Fine Arts, wrote to their account holders, stating in no uncertain terms that if they traded their products on ebay, their accounts would be terminated.

[Roboframer]

It was easy to find the gallery's Ebay shop. They state that they are having a sale and that the RRP of that print is £285. The way prints are moving here I'd be happy with that price, especially if I get to frame it in addition.

So I'm assuming DeMotfort's price of £510 is the framed price - that's the only price they give in their catalogue now - and the gallery's price is for the print only. This being the case I don't think it's a big deal.

[foxyframer]

Yep. DeMontfort can take a hike. The market has changed.

Long gone the days of being seduced into a multi-mega order at the NEC by smart and beguiling lovelies on the stand. All the stock is gone with the exception of one Adam Barsby that I probably couldn't give away.

Arqadia were always dependable for stock levels and like Robo we get these futuristic dates and projected shipping notices; three months hence. That's just not good enough, we don't have to put up with it, there is always Phil at A &T. 'In stock,yes,great.'

Foxy

[Roboframer]

Well, you can see where DeMontfort are coming from - they have a range of 'dedicated' - or whatever they call them (I think it is 'dedicated') galleries.

(I think) The deal is that 80% of the stuff (art) for sale has to be theirs to qualify for 'dedicated' status.

In addition to those galleries they have the likes of me (and you) - framers that also sell prints.

The dedicated galleries have databases, very strong on marketting to their 'colectors' of 'fine art'; they probably buy the stuff framed from DeMontfort.

To match DeMontfort's framed prices, in a lot of cases, I'd have to add museum glass, plus the thing(s) would be correctly mounted to alphamat artcare.

So, with print sales as they are, at least here for a long time - put yourself in DeMontfort's position - sod the guys not doing it as a mainstay; concentrate on the 'galleries' - produce a 4x more expensive product and don't worry about the 50% dip in sales.

Prints, to me, are prints - they come on paper and not some 'hand embellished' - but stil paper - laminated on to board of a quality that undermines my basic standards.

I gave the gist of this to my DeMontfort rep on her last visit - told her I would not be buying any of this canvas board stuff - ever (again). She said she would pass on my points but I doubt if her superiors will be bovvered - and I'l be even less bovvered -

My name's John and I'm a framer.