Making Offcuts into Ready Mades

[Jonny2morsos]

I have built up a considerable amount of offcuts of mouldings and am planning to turn them into ready made frames.

I have always done this and keep some on display in our retail area but they move pretty slowly and the larger sizes sell best (10 X 8 & 12 X 10) but a lot of what I have knocking around will only make smaller sizes. I was thinking I might spend a day using up as much of the offcuts I can and then looking for a car boot sale and try to get rid of the whole lot.

However, I am wondering if I should include a strutback so they can be stood up. This would seem to make sense for smaller sizes but it adds a fair bit to the cost in proportion to what I am likely to get back at car boot prices.

Any thoughts or anyone have experience of doing this?

[stcstc]

you could always cut card strutbacks on your val?


use back 1 from simons, for 10*8 you would get about 10 out of a sheet so cost would only be about 10-20 pence each

[Otters Pool Studio]

You could just leave a backing board in the frame, and if anyone buys one, ask 'Do you need a stand to go with that', then flog them a KS Stand (Lion 5363/4825) as well - related sales! Costs you around 25p extra, easily charge 50p for it.

[Dave]

I tried selling them at a boot sale once, complete waste of a lovely sunny morning, but it may well be better where you are located.

Dave

[prospero]

I did this once and it was a nice little earner over a couple of years. Made about 300 at one go. All with stand backs. I did them at a fixed price: £5 for 5x4. £10 for 10x8. I did stick to the more decorative and "expensive-looking" moulding though. Using the plainer, cheaper stuff isn't really worth it. After a couple of years There were a few of the weirder ones that had stuck so I gave then all to the Air Ambulance jumble sale.

If you want to do the car-boot thing, grab the cheep stuff and whack together as many rims as you can. No glass. No back. No touching up the corners. Stick them in a box labelled "Damaged Frames - 50p". They will go like hot cakes. I knew a chap who used to pay for his holidays doing that.

[YPF]

I did a car boot yesterday, used up all the off cuts and knocked up some ready mades, also took along some framed prints I picked up at auction and a small display of come CMC clipart and letterart.

Whilst I didn't take a great deal of money I managed to talk an artist into coming round to visit the workshop, handed out loads of business cards to people who were looking for something something better than a small ready made and was asked to quote quantity framing for a couple of 'proper' stall holders.

Hopefully, those that took cards and made other enquiries will be back for some custom framing in the future

[andy_parks]

I think that you may want to be careful about advertising your skills at a cut price location such as a car boot sale. At the risk of sounding a snob (which I am not, I love car boot sales!), if you market yourself at those sort of prices, the subsequent customers that you attract may only want to pay car boot prices for bespoke picture framing. This would not be something I would want to do. I agree with 'Dave' that the car boot sale could be a waste of a nice sunny morningI suspect that mountains of off cuts is a problem for most picture framers but you may want to think of the opportunity costs of time spent cutting little frames when you could be doing something a whole lot more rewarding....such as golf or fishing or whatever takes your fancy! I have tried the craft fair route with very little success. At the end of craft fairs I have considered just taking all of the offcuts and throwing them away. Tragic but it may save you a waste of your time. Mind you the idea of marking them for 50p and selling them as damaged sounds a great idea and probably will work. Nice one!

[Jonny2morsos]

I was planning to distance my self from my regular business and be somewhat incognito.

Was thinking I would not do a car boot on my doorstep and not hand out leaflets with business name unless a really tasty job was offered.

Also there would probably not be two frames in the same moulding so I would not look like a ready made specialist.

[Not your average framer]

I no longer find it worth while to make ready made frames from scrap, as too many people expect to pay so little. I don't think that there is any point is chasing the bottom end of the market in a recession. It's too much of a buyers market these days.

However people will still spend money on something more desirable, or of really obvious quality. So my policy is that I now only make ready made frames from really nice scrap or discontinued mouldings.

Over the years, I've bought some very nice discontinued mouldings at silly low prices. These not only make nice ready made frames, but because I can choose to make them in more useful sizes, there are more likely to command a more profitable price.

Most of my scrap mouldings end up in a friends wood burning stove.

[Merlin]

We are doing very well with our Ready Mades.

Free mount with every RM, gets their attention and gets rid of all the offcuts.

[Roboframer]

Under my Morso left hand support arm I have a large round tote bucket for offcuts. It's supported by a sturdy cardboard tube which is marked half way down with a line and the rule is - longer than the tube - put it back on the shelf, between that and the line - put it in the bucket, below the line - do something with it NOW (like make a £1 frame*) or toss it ...... unless it's so expensive I can't bring myself to!

*Outside the shop we have a tote box (all weather - has a lid) full of frames for £1, mostly square and between 3x3" & 6x6" - no glass or backing, we have a fair few 'collectors' of these frames, one for example is an artist who uses them to stretch little canvasses over, another collects tiles and many people come in with 4 or 5 saying they have absolutely no idea what they're going to do with them, but they're 'just sooo nice'!!

Most of the stuff that gets put in the offcut bucket ends up as a £1 frame. Sometimes I'll have full lengths of a moulding for a job and I know that somewhere in the bucket is a length of the same that will save one, but 33% of the time I can't find it and another 33% of the time it will either be damaged or slightly different in some way.

The problem I find with 'proper' ready made frames from offcuts is too much variety; 'ranges' sell far better. My most poplar sizes are A4, squares (because the proportions will always be right for a smaller square image - just add a mount - and also because no-one seems to do many square ready mades) and 7x5" triple aperture.

[Not your average framer]

I agree with Merlins point about free mounts. It is my policy to include a double mount is most of the really nice ready made frames and it certainly results in a greater number of customers purchasing these frames.

I also have a stack of mountboard scraps at the front of my shop and anyone wanting a mount cut from these scraps gets a 50% discount on the cost of the mount. Many customers really like this.

[Roboframer]

I also have a tote box full of mount board scraps in the shop, some are in bags of (small) similar sizes; some are individual, they're all CHEAP - maximum of £1 - stuff I'd toss otherwise.

If anyone wants a mount cut from these they can swivel - it's "bought as seen" - for your kids to scribble on, some craft project, whatever.