What's in a Name?

[silvercleave]

Where do all you framers get their names from, one or two I know but surely the others must have a story to tell???

[Spit]

Real names, shop names, usernames?

[prospero]

I have had the web handle Prospero for a few years. First time I picked it I happened to be watching 'The Masque of the Red Death'.

Much later I realised it's nearly an anagram of Peter Robinson if you ignore the Es and Ts. (Oh and the N's and B)

....and the I

[Spit]

Spit is just a shortened Spitfire, I used to be almost obsessed with Triumph cars. I started using it on footy forums many years ago as there were far too many SteveG's or variations of it.

[Roboframer]

Real name - John (God's chosen one - I thhhhhangyou)

Shop name - Angmering Framing & Stitches - God how I hate that but Mrs R won't change it and I just make the fwames! Started off, from home as 'Angmering Framing Services' and it was always fun ringing up suppliers .....

"I'd like to make an order"

"What's your account No?"

"A-N-G-M-0001"

"A - M for Monkey.....?"

"No A - N for November"

"Oh A-N-G ... N for Nice?"

"Did you say Mice?"

"No - Nice - NNNNNNice - opposite of horrible'

"Ah - no (Gordon Bennet) M for Mike"

"Oh (tap tap tap) Anger .... anjmeer .... Angring Framing?"

"That'll do"

"What wouold you like to order"

"I forget!"


Username - RoboFramer.

When I left the army, after taking pre-release courses in calligraphy and framing (two of the former; one of the latter - had a silly notion there was money in calligraphy and I'd be framing it too) I got a day job - house paid for, Army pension - didn't need a huge wage - got a job at The Body Shop, (the headquarters are just down the road) as a humble warehouse operative (packer) while we started the framing up from home and tested the water.

They were/are totally computerised and had an average picking rate of 167 units per hour and an average error rate of 0.02%. Fall below the former and/or above the latter too often and words would be had!

Give me a target/time and I have to double/halve it - almost killed myself in the army halving fitness test times!

Most of the skivers that worked there I loved to imagine on a drill square, or running up a hill carrying a 24lb machine gun in full kit with me screaming at them. They would do as much as they needed to do and no more. If it looked like they may complete an order too quick, they'd slow right down to get back just within that 167 units per hour

Me? well I looked on it as a workout - my average picking rate was about 333 units per hour with a practically zero error rate.

This was treated with contempt "You're making the rest of us look bad" (Duh - you frellin' well ARE) and "You won't get paid any more for going faster" (Watch me!) I was always the first to be offered overtime and when a job in International packing came up (25% shift premium and bags of overtime) guess who got it!

Aaaaanyway - before that they christened me 'RoboPacker' - it was intended as a derogatory term - I came back from a break one time and there was a big label on the side of my picking truck "Call me RoboPacker" - as I started to peel it off, I looked about and saw a small group a few aisles over, sniggering, and immediately knew which one had put it there - a right 'Barrack room lawyer"

So I left it there and next day I taped a battery operated toy robot to the front of my truck and a licence plate that said 'RoboPacker'

I never started the job in International - a needlework/wool shop came up in the village and we made the leap.

[osgood]

Well...... John (Robo Packer, Calligrapher, Framer, etc, etc, etc...) you've just succeeded in making everyone else' stories about their nicks, really bloody boring!

I don't think I'll bother with mine after that!

[Roboframer]

I don't think I'll bother with mine after that!

Aw go on!

a needlework/wool shop came up in the village and we made the leap.

Forgot to say - that shop was called 'Stitches' so we dropped the 'services' and added '& Stitches' Duh!

Lots of long standing customers/villagers still call us 'stitches' and we used it in a radio ad once - it ended with 'There's nothing funny about all that, but, if you are looking for crafts, you should be in Stitches'

How clever is that!

[osgood]

To tell the truth, I can't remember who gave me my nickname, because I have C.R.A.F.T. disease!
It was either in high school or at Teachers college back in the 60's. Someone could come to grips with Ormond so they called me Osgood instead and it stuck. Even some of my stepsons call me Osgood! I've been using it ever since as my username, email address and my registration plate on my work ute!

See told you it would bore you to death!

OK, now how about you 'silvercleave'????

[Jonny2morsos]

From "jonny2morsos"

A year back a local antique map dealer/framer was selling up and offered us their equipment which included a couple of plan chests which we needed as we were making the move from home to "real" business premises. The plan chests were a necessity for keeping all the new work we had coming in but I could not resist a couple of other items including a Morso which still sits in my workshop in exactly the place I put it 12 months ago (much to the annoyance of Mrs 2 morsos). Thing is should I flog it or keep it ready for our next move of premises when we have room and staff to accommodate/use it?

Anyway, the name rolls of the tongue better than "jonny 2 Keencut system 4000 sheet material cutters" and ditto the above as to whether I should keep or sell.

Whatever, they seem a better investment than my 500 shares in Bradford and Bingley.

John.

[framejunkie]

There's not much of a story to 'framejunkie'.
It's my business name, and came about slightly by accident. When i went self-employed i set up an email account for work and to my astonishment 'framegeek' was already in use as a hotmail address(anybody know who that is?). I toyed with a few other names, and a friend of mine talked me out of calling my business 'OCD Framing' - he pointed out that people might reasonably expect me to have a problem meeting deadlines if i was being too Obsessive/Compulsive about it, and given that my core custom is frames for artworks going into exhibitions, deadlines are often very fixed.('I know your Private View is on the 12th, but the frames won't be ready til the 20th' - not a recipe for business success!)
So i became 'framejunkie' - it works well for the East-End art scene - people like that it has an edgy/slightly dangerous/illegal connotation, so all the art trendies kind of like it. I did get some junk-mail for a while addressed to 'famejunkie', which kind of p***ed me off - can't stand all the fame obsession/celebrity BS our society is so preoccupied with.
Incidently, my friend Robin has pointed out how cruel it is to call the Obsessive/Compulsive condition a Disorder - the one thing it is about above everything is Order, so calling it a disorder is like calling anorexia something like 'Chubby Syndrome' - it can't help people who suffer from this!
If i'd followed jonny2morsos principle i'd probably be simon3snap-offknives - much less impressive

[silvercleave]

See told you it would bore you to death!

OK, now how about you 'silvercleave'????[/quote]

Cleave is a fault line in the ground, "olde english" and the silver comes from the fact that we own a field next door to an old silvermine, working until the 50's, hence the name "Silvercleave"

Is your name more boring than that?????

regards

[WelshFramer]

I can beat that with an even more boring name.

I'm a framer and I live in Wales.

The company name is Neuadd Bwll Framing and the web site was to be neuaddbwllframing.co.uk but not many people could spell that.

[The Crofter]

I have a croft.....yawn.

[Bill Henry]

Interesting story this …

My mother gave me the name, “Bill Henry”, and pretty soon everyone was calling me that.

So, eventually, the name stuck.

[chevron]

i wanted to use something a bit framery but chevron doesn't denote whether i am a he/she....i should have used miss chevron....my real name is ley....short for beverley...i don't like being called bev...sounds too masculine...bit like kev or trev.....boring.....sorry!....

[prospero]

i wanted to use something a bit framery but chevron doesn't denote whether i am a he/she....i should have used miss chevron....my real name is ley....short for beverley...i don't like being called bev...sounds too masculine...bit like kev or trev.....boring.....sorry!....

Good thinking 'ron.

[Uncle Sumo]

My nieces and nephews think I`m fat - mainly because I`m fat.