The Framers Forum

Hi All, I'm Geoff and new to framing and the forum. Keen to learn framing, done a basic course and in the process of sourcing equipment. Just looking for some advice on glass. Could you advise where to purchase and what size framers would consider as a standard size. Also do you keep a range of different glass in stock or do you order as and when required? Like any new skill trying to avoid buying things that will still be sitting in workshop in 5 years time!
Any advice would be welcome.

Regards,

Geoff Smith,

Hi Geoff -

Don't overburden yourself with stock at this stage. If you order through Wessex you can buy as much or as little as you need. I keep plenty of standard float glass in a standard 1220 x 915 size, which is as big as I would like to be handling. I also keep AR70 and UV99 in stock, but never more than a few sheets at a time - just enough to get a pack discount, which can be as little as two sheets. Wessex do an excellent cut to size service for all sorts of glass, which stops you having to keep large stocks. It may look a bit more expensive but it saves on handling and waste, which soon builds up.

Wessex have all the glass you will ever need and they deliver it in their own van.

I use a lot of AR70 nowadays. When people see the difference they tend not to whinge about the price.
For 'fine art' stuff it's more or less my default. And it's a lot cheaper than it used to be - because more
people are using it.

Wessex here too. I keep at least 5 sheets of float glass and 2 sheets of UV70 in stock.
Larson Juhl website supply shadow box glass viewers, glass handling gloves etc free of charge from Truvue.
Order the expensive Museum glass cut to size and you don't have to deal with the storage, upfront cost or the wastage.

The other option is Centrado (centrado.co)

They do van delivery service too.

Standard Float in 'Splits' - 1220 x 915, and AR 70 would be the only stuff to put in stock. No need for a huge stock.

Thanks everyone good to get advice from people working with a product daily. haven't thought about waste though. Going to have limited space like everyone starting out I suppose, thinking about it probably need as much space for off cuts as main stock! I suppose setting up a small workshop is 'work in progress' suppose you keep having to re arrange as you work how you need to best use the bit of space you have? What do you do about mouldings, I imagine that can easily become unmanageable as far as stock and off cuts go. Do you manage your offering to a limited number of profiles and stick with them depending on market trends? Sorry for all the questions but like I said earlier best advice you can get is from people that have 'been there and bought the t shirt'!
Thank you.

Don't be too attached to your glass offcuts. Unless you have a regular job to use them or actively make small pictures
as stock, you will always get more small bits than you get small jobs. Basically, anything under 10" is scrap. I know
it seems wasteful, but glass is only sand and it's cheap enough. The trouble of storing 100s of bits that are a pain (sometimes literally)
to handle will far be outweighed by having to cut into a full sheet to get a 5x5" piece - which happens rarely.

** I have a big water tank full of strips about 6" wide that I saved. One day I will slice them up and sling them.

*** I also have boxes of 'standard' size pieces that I spent days cutting up and never used. I even gave some to a photographer
friend of mine and he never used any.

I get my glass from Wessex. They provide an excellent and very reliable service. Very nice people too!

I manage to use a fairly large amount of my glass waste for making little frames and other nick nacks, it's already paid for, so it seems crazy to just put it in the dumpster. Some of these items made from scrap don't always make a massive amount of money, as there are quiet times when not much is going on, but the tend to slowly tick over.

When I get too overloaded, I tend to put a few bits and bobs in to a £1 box outside the front door, which tends to shift some things. The £1 box is very interesting to tourists who think that Items for£1 are too good to miss. The locals only have a good look when they are actually looking for something. Some people will buy things to sell on eBay, because they think there is a profit in it.

I make batches of little pine boxes, for displaying in my shop windows. People don't always know what they want these boxes for, but they buy them because they think that they might be useful sometime. Many of these pine boxes are unfinished apart from a wipe with a little bit of wax. There not a lot of point for me spending too much time, hand finishing them as it does not increase the value, or the saleability. They are what they are, customers either like them, or they don't bother.

Little box frames in fairly small sizes are a good way of using up little pieces of glass. Yet again these frames are often bare wood pine frames, people buy them to give away as gifts, or to sell on ebay with some little object inside. Again not massive money, but everything came out of the scrap box, so what the heck! I guess some of you will think that this is not worth doing, but I'm in a sleepy little rural Devon town and this is what happens around here.

Thanks for the advice, by nature we all tend to hang onto stuff on the off chance will come in handy, but like most things in life never does, suppose that is why we all have garages full of 'stuff' and the car on the drive!

thanks once again.

Geoff.

Not everything which I make from scraps is guaranteed to sell, I just rely up on the law of averages. The more bits and pieces that I've got available for sale, the more likely that customers will find something that they want. Sure I get somethings which just sit around doing nothing, but you don't always know what will sell and what won't. I've got boxes full of frames made from scrap, people like going through them, it's fun.

I've got something for everyone and there's a good variety of prices too. there's plenty of bargains for the bargain hunter. Also many of them make good presents as well. In particular I like making little box frames as they are not really something which are easy to find in the normal shops, but there seems to be a reasonable demand for them.

Lots of scrap bits of moulding gets cut up in to box frame spacers, it does not take much time to do and turns something which is otherwise destined for the dustbin into a more saleable item at no extra cost whatsoever. It's a bit of fun for me, seeing how much I get to charge for my left over bits and pieces. It's not quite money for nothing, as there is still my labour input, but I'm mostly not having to buy any materials.