Paintings on silk - A warning!

[Not your average framer]

I'm just having to re-do a massive painting on silk. Nothing wrong which the workmanship and it's framed in a really stunning expensive designer moulding. The colouring and visual quality on both sides is the same, unfortunately the customer wants the wildlife in the painting facing in a particular direction, but did not say so and I did not check which side is which. I won't make that mistake again!

As per usual, I'm very nice about it and said, "Bring it back and I'll turn it around for you". I have just un-laced the painting and my wife "Vee" is re-lacing it now so I can finish it off again tomorrow. On the plus side, the customer is very pleased and has said that she will be bringing some more to me for framing. That'll be nice!

In future I will verify which side is which while taking the order. It's at times like this, when you realise how much better it is to lace fabric art onto it's support, than to use other methods. If it had been stretched and then glued at the back of the support, (which I never would do), I would have been in deep trouble!

[Roboframer]

I take digital photos of things like this, where there could be doubt as to which is the back/front/top/bottom.

Also useful for the order of things in multiple apertures and lots more else.

[Not your average framer]

Hi John,

That's a good tip! We've just finished re-lacing, it took ages. It so large that Vee asked me to help to help, so we sat facing each other and passed the needle from one to the other. The finished size including the mount, (which does not have particularly large borders), is 32" by 45".

We had to limit the size of the mount, because the colurs the customer wanted, (double mount), are not available in Jumbo sizes and anyway my mount cutter is only a 48" model. I think we did alright on pricing this one, but I'm thinking that I need to add stretching/lacing to my price chart, so that the price is incremented according to the size. Currently I have a flat charge and add a bit if I think it needs it.

[Roboframer]

[prospero]

I once drimounted a (small) x-stitch face-down. Fortunately, I used film and only gave it a few seconds squeeze in the press, so I peeled it off without damage. That was the last one I ever tried sticking down.

[Jonny2morsos]

Just a week or two back I had a lady bring in an embroidered item which I laced onto a board. It also had a second piece of fabric which had to be stuck on to the mount as it in effect formed the mount (if that makes sense).

Anyway, a day or two after she collected it she rang to say she had noticed that she had missed some stitches and could she bring it back. When she came in I took the back off and she sat in the shop adding the extra stitches without the need to unlace. Then I put it back together and she went away a happy lady.

Could not have done that with a stuck down item. I will only stick down if the customer insists and then I put a note inside to say it has been done that way against our advice and will not put our label on the back.

John.

[Bill Henry]

… she rang to say she had noticed that she had missed some stitches and could she bring it back. When she came in I took the back off and she sat in the shop adding the extra stitches without the need to unlace.
John.

I had something similar happen a few years ago. A woman constructed a cross stitch for her sister’s upcoming wedding. It was fairly simple and included names, dates, the church, and a few sappy sayings.

When she came to pick it up she was all a-twitter. Her sister had moved the wedding date back by a week. I dismounted the entire framed piece and she sat in the corner picking out floss and redoing it to reflect the changed date.

I wasn’t without sympathy, though. I gave her a chair and a waste basket while she sat near the window.