Jamesnkr wrote:They're like something out of a long-gone world (which of course they are, in a way). There's a real element of magic to them. Crossed with Chemistry.
I couldn't have said it better myself!
I really love the creative side of doing stuff like this. It's all Pete Bingham's fault that I got hooked on this you know. I wasn't even a picture framer in those days. I was in the second hand book business and used to cut mounts to use up and sell collectible book plates out of damaged old books and vintage adverts out of old magazines.
Someone at the company which supplied me with my mountboard, asked me while I was placing an order for another pack of mountboard, if I was going to the Spring Fair, so I asked what the Spring Fair was all about. I went there just to be nosey, walked around a corner and spotted Pete Bingham demostrating hand finishing. My wife had trouble dragging me away! I was hooked! Hand finishing was a large part of what led my to be a framer.
I've been at it since about the year 2,000. I still love it as much as ever all these years later. I never originally planned to become self employed, but it was either that, or starve at the time. It's amazing how things happen that you never planned, or wanted. Things sometimes just come out of the blue and everything changes and you go with it because needs must.
I had already worked a bookbinder repairing books for a bookshop in Southsea and restoring old documents for the same shop. It was through this same shop that I was trained to be a bookbinder and paper conservator. Some years before this, I had to spend some time out of my original engineering career while suffering with M.E. and during this time I made a living buying, repairing and selling antique and vintage items. Quite a lot of this was small items of furniture, or woodwork.
It's taken me about forty years to final get to where I am now, but none of the things I had to learn along the way got wasted and I still used many of these same skills today. It's been quite a journey!