The Framers Forum

Bang on Grays. The job of a picture framer is to frame a picture. Surprising how many don't get it.
Willy Waving - love it !

i kinda agree about comps. although also could be viewed as showing what you can do, rather than design something to compliment the art

and if you look at them as look at what i can do, then they work well. and great pieces to put on the wall. i mean most customers who walk into a retail store are gonna go oooo, even if its not tasteful

I remember a few years ago seeing the ubiquitous framing comp and having a discussion with someone of the guild why I wasn't going to vote. The guild person could not understand when I told them none of them had actually framed the picture, they had merely over dressed them and forgotten what they were actually meant to be doing.

Fantastic craftsmanship in all cases, but the pictures were almost just a prop for the frame design, the pictures would not have been missed if they had actually been left out.

STCSTC wrote "although also could be viewed as showing what you can do, rather than design something to compliment the art"

But isn't that why we frame a piece of art, what you can do is irrelevant if it doesn't compliment and protect the art.... thats what a frame is for, not as a piece of art in its own right.

yep agree thats what our job is

BUT what i said was if you look at it as what we can do, not if its complementary etc

Then if it's a showcase of what you can do, it either has to be (a) simply a collection of complicated techniques - which most posessors of effective equipment will be able to achieve - and which will be of little interest to a framing customer, or (b) a tastefully executed and well presented example of framed artwork - which would always impress a framng customer - and that, surely, is what this business is about.

Not Willy Waving. lol.

Nothing succeeds like excess.


How many times have we seen a moulding in a reps case and thought "Oh that's cool I like that" and ordered some. Ten years later the moulding is still wrapped up because you just haven't found a picture to use it on. I've got loads. Chinese script moulding. Diamonte faceted moulding. Amphibious landing craft moulding. But an OTT frame isn't altogether a bad thing. Stick it in the window to draw attention.

It's what's known in the trade as a 'Jawdropper'.

ya peter thats exactly what i ment

stcstc wrote:ya peter thats exactly what i ment

deffo and just because you spelled meant wrong and you are to lazy to use tha shift key it don't mean the roof is gonna fall in.

I grasped the gist an that's the main thing.

Never succumbed to that Prospero. That was why I started finishing my own mouldings. That way I got exactly what I wanted, not what Arqamonoliasexline wanted me to have.

I had a job from another gallery the other day. They sold a pastel and the buyer wants it framed like another pic they had on the wall. The moulding in question is a Larsarqiuhl one that ain't cheap or should I say wasn't cheap as they appear to have disco'd it. (What a surprise).
And to complicate things they folks also bought quite an expensive little oil which also needs framing with the same finish but wider. That moulding never existed with that particular finish so no good trying to buy it.
But after a bit of head-scratching I think I have managed to do the finish or at least a close approximation. One up to the hfers.