most Popular Mouldings

[billy]

hi all,
I am new to this forum and fairly new to framing. I will be offering framing services to artists soon and I would like to know which mouldings you find to be most popular with artists(Supplier and moulding ref No.). I would like to keep my stock as small as possible, so the top 10 mouldings might be OK. I understand this will vary from framer to framer but all responses/suggestions are welcome.

Thanks, Billy

[SquareFrames]

Hi Billy,

Welcome to the forum, and welcome to the framing bueiness.

As for top 10's, mosuling sippliers will tell you its nigh on impossible to give you such a list. The companies I use, CP Productions and Arqadia, give you a 'Starter List' but that sometimes changes as well, depending on trends and sales.

Framing for artists can be lucrative. Artists will always want their work framed as cheaply as possible, but thats where you have to step in and get them to frame their work 'correctly' not cheaply. Artists spend many hours working on artwork, and have preconceived ideas of how it should be framed, sometimes with disasterous results. In our experience a lot of artists, especially amature ones tend to go for cheap, rather than quality, the more experienced and professional ones now leave their work with us, and we choose mounts and frames to present the artwork to the best of its quality. Thats what you are aiming for, 'artist confidence', it will come, given time.

'Framing for artists can be your personal downfall' You have to encourage your artists to have their work framed to the correct standard, goodness knows the last piece you framed for an unknown amature could be worth £1000's in 10, 15, 20 years time, and when its up for valuation and they notice that inferior materials have been used, the incorrect tapes and methods fo framing have been used, guess who get the blame and/or a call form a solictor?

Here is where some other forum members and I differ. The Fine Art Trade Guild (of which I am a committee member of their Framers Committee) have along with the mountboard manufacturers, printers, etc. set standards for their materials and therefore the framing. (See below, just click the link after my name) There are standards set out, you dont have to adhere to them, you are not compelled, its not compulsory, but by framing your own work to a set of standards, can only help you and your business reputation. Have a read through them, the standards are always being updated, as inovation in tehniques, materials get updated, etc. Nothing leaves my workshop unless it either adheres to ant standard set down, or is of a higher standard. ALL my original artist's work is Conservation Standard, means a lot to the artists that I ahve taken the time to explain the required standard, it also means a lot to any prosepctive customer knowing what they buy is framed corretcly and will last approx. 15-25 years or longer.

Anyhow...have a look through the standards, talk to your local supplier, but above all, talk to your artists.

Hope all goes well for you in the future, all you got to do 'if stuck' is ask the forum, there is always someone to give you an answer.

Steven

http://www.fineart.co.uk/

http://www.fineart.co.uk/FramingStandards.asp

http://www.fineart.co.uk/GCF.asp

http://www.fineart.co.uk/Mountboardstandards.asp

[markw]

Billy
You are starting at an opportune time as the spring fair is just around the corner 31st Jan - 5th Feb. Birmingham NEC. You will find that most of the moulding suppliers will be there, and that they are a very friendly and helpfull lot.
I am sure that most framers will have a top 10 - and that as they become more experienced at selling the range changes a bit. The market you are aiming for has slightly different requirements than normal day to day framing. I would look at a few natural woods - they can be coloured and decorated in many different ways - a small stock of bare faced (natural wood) can go a long way. You have to consider in your selection the media you are framing, canvas, pastels etc.

I would advise that you go on a training course - it will be money well invested.

to register for spring fair http://www.springfair.com

[SquareFrames]

Hi Billy,

I agree with Markw, a trainign cousre would be a wise investment (contact me if you want a course)

I took a few minutes this morning when I came into work and checked my 'Most Popular' list for our artists on my pricing programme.

Over the past 12 months, the trend from basic 1 3/4 - 3 inch mahogany, with a gilt sight edge, 12 months ago, changed quite dramatically to silvers, gilts, and hand finsihed barefaced wood. Some artwork, approx. 20% was done with 2 - 3 inch black reversed type mouldings, approx. 90% of all the work had a silver, gilt or mahogany finished fillets, almost all of the rest of the watercolours had double mounts with 'V' grooves or single mounts with 5, 7 or 9 band line and washes.

The trend for oils and acrylics on canvas or board was either a 3/4 inch slip and then a 1 3/4 spooned inch slip and then framed, with both slips being painted took almost 75% of the artwork, the rest being what I call 'bespoke' meaning, 2, 3, or 4 painted slips and then framed with a contrasting frame to the artwork colour.

Sometimes the frame reflected the mood of either the artwork or the artist, meaning, a somber landscape was framed more tradionally with mahogany or gilt, other times using more modern colours like silver, bronze or hand finished barefaced, or even as far as 3-4 inch black frame with white painted slip or silver fillet.

I, like you want to do, always keep my stock to a minimum, I carry approx. 25-30 mouldings in stock and approx. 3 or 4 lengths of each, as we are only 10 minutes form our supplier and visit them almost on a daily basis, we are fortunate to get away with it. We dont as a rule buy end of line or discontinued mouldings, we believe that does not give our artists or customers a fair crack of the whip, and could let down people, so we dont.

Our top 10?? Hard to tell, it changes all the time, but our top sellers of 2004 were, 2 inch gilt and silver, 1 3/4 inch black, 3 inch black reverse, and....copious barefaced for hand finishing.

Good luck.

Steven

[billy]

Hi again, thanks for all the info, and your suggestions. I will consider the topic of training, particularly in relation to standards, and hope to undertake some training when I have the time.
I would appreciate if some of you would post some tips/methods on this forum in relation to hand finishing/colouring of barewood frames. I feel it might be a valuable learning resource for all forum users as I'm sure everyone will have a different approach. Anyhow thanks again and I'll try check out the forum again soon

Thanks, Billy

[markw]

Billy
I doubt you will find many posts on the forum on basic techniques - best place to learn these is at a framing school - practising on an ususpecting public is a recipe for disaster. You seem to be making the basic mistake of thinking that Picture framing is something you can do by just offering the service. You need to know that you can cause damage to your customers artwork by framing incorrectly, and that paying customers will hold you responsible for the damage caused.
I am sure that many of us on the forum will freely give advice when you need it - we all post here from time to time looking for solutions to difficult jobs - but i suspect i wont be the only person to advise you to tread carefully when starting out - It might look like all we do is slap four bits of wood around a bit of cardboard - theres a lot more to it, believe me!

[SquareFrames]

Hi Billy,

Heed what Markw states, as he says, it may just look as we slap 4 pieces of wood together, but he is correct in what he says, there is a lot more to it. As I tell all my students on the first day of their course, anyone with basic woodworking equipment can cut 4 pieces of moulding, and that includes a hand saw and basic mitre box, you can also figure out a way of holding them and keeping them together at the mitres without underpinning, but thats basically where the basicness stops. What materials and framing methods / standards go inside the rebates is the most important (in my opinion).

Like Markw also says, the paying public will hold you responsible for not only framing their artwork, but they also hold you responsible for the care, handling, proper storage and worst of all, the ruination of their artwork, therefore the possible runination of your reputation and your business. The world is so litigious nowadays, so be careful.

A framer is only as good as his last job, do it well, the word spreads, do it badly, ruin the work, watch how quickly the word spreads, thankfully in my career as a framer, I havent had a complaint, YET! But someday no doubt I will displease someone, its around the corner, but like Markw does, I take every possible care to make sure it doesnt come.

Hints and tips on here are all well and good, we all give advice, and all ask for advice, we dont profess to know it all, 'Beware of the framer that say he does' (I havent met one yet), but there is no substitute for seeing it happen and being made to follow what you have been shown, we can all tell you until we and you are blue in the face how to do a job, but doing it under controlled circumstances is the best way forward. There are Training Schools and framers willing to teach dotted all over the country, so there should be one near you. Mistakes are best done in a training school, where it can be rectified, make one mistake with a customers work, it could be your last! A lot of back street, unscrupolous people and so called 'garage framers' have learned that over the years.

We may sound as if we are doom mongers and trying to put you off, far from it, but this is the best advice I can give anyone starting off, 'Go and learn from a seasoned professional, will be the best money you have ever spent and could save you £1000's in the long run'

Steven

[hawkinsgallery]

Hi Billy,
Having been an artist for most of my life and a framer for the last 6 years perhaps I can offer some advice. Most artists with any taste will not want the frame to overpower or interfere with the work,rather to complement it in a restrained way. For this reason I usually use off white/antique white mounts (as you will know there are many variations)-always acid free or conservation. Plain wood frames tend to be a good option,but for etchings or charcoal drawings black frames look great,especially with thicker mountboard. I always discuss presevation of artwork and the need to use acid free barriers etc.
good luck! Andy Hawkins

[John]

Hi Andy,

Welcome to the forum. Being an artist, I'm sure you will be able to offer us interesting insights from both sides of the framing counter.

That's good advice for Billy. (also an artist?)

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[SquareFrames]

Hi Billy,

Adding to Andy's advice, what we have done over the years, is to try, where possible to steer away from, (with watercolours) using only off white / ivory coloured mounts, and try if at all possible to introduce a darker coloured inner mount, to complement the artwork. But this is where you got to be careful, you never introduce a coloured mount just for the sake of it, you never introduce a colour that is not in the painting, i.e., if the painting is a traditional country scene of green, browns, etc., dont introduce a blue inner mount, it just wont work.

One problem you eventually will have (we have all had it) is the customer who asks you to frame a print or watercolour (or anything) and duely brings out a sample of the cushion covers, carpet or curtains and asks you to mact the mount to that, even though the colour isnt in the image. What do you do in this case? You have 4 options here:

1. Go along with it, and get as much money off the custmoer as possible
2. Explain (in detail about colour co-orination) and that the colour doesnt really suit the image, but that you could possibly get a frame that complements the cushion covers
3. Refuse to do the job, because the customer is insisting against your expert advice
4. Do as you customer asks, and be thankful they came to you in the first place

We dont always get to do the job the way we advise, but thats the nature of the business, customers, and artists are always right. Take the time and effort to spend (if you have to) up to 3-4 hours with a customer choosing mounts. Ensure all your mounts chevron samples are on display and clean, and easily accessible. Clear your work bench and try dark colours with ivorys, off whites, champagnes, and other light neutral colours, all will become clear to both you and the artist or customer. Have samples of your own framing and mounting on show, personally I have lots of examples and some examples of bad framing and horendous mounting to show what and will happen if a job is not done right. The last thing anyone wants to see when they look at a framed painting is the mounts and the frame, if someone says, 'Oh, thats a lovely frame' its framed wrong, they didnt notice the painting. Subtelty it whats ita all about.

Steven