Good or what

[silvercleave]

Conservation_01.JPG

This is a picture of a frame taken to pieces in front of customer (she wants the mount colour changed) this was framed by a company not far from me which is a member of FATG and promotes itself as such, as this woman's work is of a very high standard of gold work and embroidery, I invite comments of the back of this work, laced? yes, but held in place with brown tape, no packing either side of it just stapled so that the back board was bulging.

needless to say the customer was not at all happy!!

Ian

[JohnMcafee]

Sorry Ian, you haven't given us enough information.

Why wasn't the customer happy?
Did she think the bulging back damaged the work in some way? Had she asked for and paid for the original frame to be to conservation standards? Did she notice that the brown tape had actually caused damage to the work in some way?

Without knowing the a lot more about the original agreement between customer and framer, I wouldn't want to be judgemental.

[silvercleave]

John

I didn't infer that it was to conservation standard but the framer is "Commended", and I would have thought that sticking the work in place with brown sticky tape is surely not good practice, to use spacing around the item to hold it in place would have been neater with less damage to the item.

Are bulging backboards acceptable?

Ian

[Roboframer]

I agree it's not pretty or best practice, but ....

The GCF test does not include needlework or sink mounting, so, assuming the framer laced it and not the customer, it could have been worse. It could, for example, have been stuck to a board with something not very nice, with the excess fabric trimmed off; I've seen that - plenty!

As a FATG member, that framer did not have to be left to his/her own ends, advice could have been asked for and there's a bookshop - or maybe the framer was aware of better methods and chose to ignore them.

Are you going to sink the piece and if you do, will it all fit back in to that rebate?

Also - I could be wrong but I'm doubting that UV glass was used - did you recommend it should be? I think UV light is more of an enemy than the method/materials shown.

[Not your average framer]

There has always been a market for price driven customers and there's plenty of guild commended framers, who know how to exploit this end of the market. Quite a lot of needlework customers are not interested in how it is done, if the price is good. There's a lot of know how required to make a worthwhile profit out of such customers, so those who make a success of it, need to know what they are doing.

There's a guild commended framer near me, who sticks cross stitches down with d/sided carpet tape onto nuetral ph standard mountboard (Colourmount 800 series), then staples through the cross stitch, tape and mountboard all round and guillotines it to size. Yes, he chops the cross stitch to size and then frames it. The customers get what they paid for, but it does the job. He does a lot of needlework framing for those who want a fast, cheap job. His work is externally presented to a good standard, it doesn't appear to fall apart over time and I would not like to compete with his price.

He's attracting a lot of customers by his prices and I know he still has to work very hard for his money. He's not poaching my customers and I'm not poaching his. I even send the occasional customer, who wont pay my prices to him. There's room in the market for us both, so who's complaining!

[Jonny2morsos]

I believe the GCF test does now include a fabric piece but this is a recent change.

The FATG recognise five levels of framing starting with a Minimum Level and it could be the customer decided to opt for this due to their budget.

Having said that it would not have been done that way by us.

Interestingly, John (Roboframer) mentions conservation glazing and I am still a little confused by the FATG Conservation Level of framing that does not specify UV protection.

[Roboframer]

There's a guild commended framer near me, who sticks cross stitches down with d/sided carpet tape onto nuetral ph standard mountboard (Colourmount 800 series), then staples through the cross stitch, tape and mountboard all round and guillotines it to size

Well, even that takes time and materials; more time and materials, for example, than 'T' hingeing a print - are the time and materials charged for, or, because it's 'easy' does s/he not make any charge?

I think, depending on size, that I could probably lace and mount something in not much more time at all, if any - because it's what I just do all the time and for me it's just as 'easy' - but even so, there's a charge.

[Roboframer]

Interestingly, John (Roboframer) mentions conservation glazing and I am still a little confused by the FATG Conservation Level of framing that does not specify UV protection.

I'm not up to date with 'the 5 levels' but I think at 'Conservation level' UV glass is recommended but not compulsory, which (if correct) I think is slightly mad as UV light has to be enemy No1.

[Jonny2morsos]

When doing fabric items like cross stitches after lacing I use foambord strips to make a surround like this:

Heron-2[1].jpg

and then position the mount over the top and trim back like this (sink mounting ?)

Heron-3[1].jpg

I doubt it takes much more time than sticking tape as shown at the top of this thread so why don't these people do their customers and themselves a favour and do it correctly?

[Not your average framer]

They won't because they will have to use a moulding with a deeper rebate and that will cost more!