The Year is Nearly Done . . .

This is pretty much a final wrap-up blog for this year. December has again been a record month for us, with a lot of late nights and weekends spent at the work benches. Every one of our gang has been their usual magnificent selves, and we haven’t missed a single deadline - Phew!

The new van decided to breakdown big-time 8 days after we bought it, but it’s all fixed and now displaying its shiny new livery. As ever, give us a wave if you see us out and about.

We’ve been doing some exciting (and at times challenging) new work on an art collection based on the theme of war. This exhibition is due to run throughout the year as part of the 100th commemoration of the 1st World War. We’ll give more details about this once we’re given permission to do so.

A quick tot-up of our records shows that we welcomed 381 new customers this year and we thank everyone who came and found us, as well as all the regular customers who continue to support us. It really is appreciated.

We’re pretty pleased that we’ve been able to create a couple more jobs this year and that is all down to our customers (with sod all help from government schemes that are never aimed at genuinely small businesses - but I’m not allowed to end the year on a rant!).  

So on that note, we wish everyone a great Christmas and a peaceful New Year. The photo shows the loneliest Christmas tree on our little industrial estate - but it’s cheered everyone up!

Happy Christmas!

Loads of new things!

So, in my last blog I said “hopefully in November we won’t have to buy anything” . . . famous last words. The trusty company van has had to be changed. As we now seem to be delivering frames further and further afield for our corporate customers, the old bone-rattler was getting a bit out of puff on these long motorway runs. The last 11 hour run (yes, 11 hours!) to Dorchester left me feeling like I’d been in gripping an egg whisk for a day. I was shaken, but not stirred!



Although we’re sad to see our fabulous old van stripped of its graphics and have a ‘for sale’ sign slung around its neck, we’re delighted to get a nearly new shiny version that’s ready to get it’s On the Edge ‘stripes’ fitted. It even accelerates and has rear doors that don’t let in a howling gale - progress indeed!



And that’s not all this month, our band of 4 has been increased to 5½. Our team of framers has been joined by 'the new boy'.  Jonny has 12 years experience framing in one of the London galleries and it’s great to get another capable pair of hands helping us at the framing benches. We needed him !

And every business needs a nice bubbly youngster (even younger than Jess) to tackle those routine chores that never seem to get done by the rest of us. So next week sees Maddy (a student at Robert Smyth) join us part-time, ready to wrestle the back log of filing and numerous other forsaken tasks! So when you visit our workshop, do say hi to Jonny and Maddie.

The photo shows Jonny and Sheenac (yes, that is how you spell her name), only because it’s very rare to get a photo of Shenac, so we’ll take what we get!




Spot the Difference

It feels a bit like winter - which is probably okay as it is now November. So as usual my blog start with an exclamation of how quickly the last month went! We’ve been running to catch up with everyone keen to get things framed - so thanks again to all our customers. 


Our blogs seems to be a constant tale of new framing and giclée printing equipment. In October we changed our reliable old Canon 8100 for a new 8400. They tell me it’s better, but I’m not quite sure what that means! See if you can spot the difference - for few thousand quid we seem to have got a grey printer instead of a cream one. They also changed a few buttons just to keep me on my toes.

Hopefully in November we won’t have to buy anything - we’ve certainly got no room for anything else. Does anybody have a spare workshop unit please . . . . . . . ?

The Beast is Working !

I know you've been eagerly awaiting the promised photo of our new toy, and here it is! 

Okay, okay, I know it’s not that exciting, but it is for us. 

We've managed to stumble through the challenges of the Italian manufacturer's rather entertaining english translation of the user manual.  The ‘beast’ is now fully up and running and we’ve all overcome the fear of using it as it it’s a strong old thing and really does bite if you get it wrong!
 
But all is good and it’s churning out some beautiful corners and doing exactly what we bought it for.  Phew !

A New Toy Arrives

This is as exciting as our lives get! Lurking in our goods-in bay is our brand new computerised underpinner - it’s the machine that nails the corners together. I know, this may not seem that exciting to our customers, but for us picture framers a new state of the art bit of equipment means it might be easier to keep on top of all the orders. Actually, it means we can make an even better job of those tricky corners - the framer’s nemesis!

Our current underpinner is also a computerised machine, so this new one must therefore be even more computerised!

We’ve had a peek in the box, but there’s a lot of bits and pieces in there, so we’re waiting for Neil, the engineer who looks after all our equipment (rather well actually, but don’t tell him in case he puts his charges up!) to come and install the beast. We’ll post a picture of the new shiny toy once it’s in place - if it fits !

The Art World, plus a bit of Charity

May, June and July have gone. I’m convinced our last blog was about three weeks ago, so that just proves (again) just how time flys. Our picture framing and giclée printing world is as busy as ever and the flow of art keeps appearing.

I think in blogs, the ‘learned’ are supposed to express some great wisdom about their industry. In the absence of wisdom all I can comment on is the strange situation whereby artists seem to be struggling to sell their work. We are framing and printing more than ever, and the economy is showing small signs of recovery, but I guess people aren’t buying pictures. Hopefully it will change soon.

On a more jolly note, we were delighted to be able to give some frames to local charities. We had been making various frames from the left over length of mouldings, but storage is a problem for us and we didn’t really know what to do with them. The Harborough Mail ran a piece for us and we were delighted to donate a good quantity of picture frames to the Air Ambulance shop in Harborough, the Clipston branch of the Canine Partners charity and some to Medbourne Village Hall. Hopefully they can earn a few bob from them - and we won’t have to feel bad about throwing out loads of perfectly good frame wood!

Is Spring Here?

Well thank heavens the snow has gone. Is it too much to hope that spring has finally arrived? Remarkably we had our busiest ever January and February & March, so thank you to everyone who did make their way through the snow, ice, fog and rain.

We continue to see a wide range of art through our workshops and the usual high-quality selection of professional and hobby enthusiast photography. Our Canon large format printer giclée and photographic printer seems to be running all the while these days. And don’t even get me on the topic of the new print heads that it miraculously seems to need the same time every year - irrespective of how many prints we’ve done! If there are any conspiracy theorists amongst you, I’d like to join gang.

With a number of private exhibitions coming up we’ve been busy making sure we hit a few deadlines. (we haven’t missed one yet!)

And, talk about famous last words; having praised our trusty old van in our last blog, it decided to blow its clutch to bits on the North Circular, enroute to making a delivery in London. It wasn't the best of days!

A Milestone is Reached!

The trusty old van has just reached its 100,000 mile mark. We’d like to say that that makes 100,000 miles of delivering frames, but it spent the first 40,000 of its life delivering fitted kitchens, but that still makes 60,000 miles of lugging frames about.

It’s been a reliable old workhorse (famous last words) but is probably the slowest van on the road - we didn’t splash out on the turbo version!




The van is pretty well known round these areas, and everyone waves as we travel around. They seem to prefer waving at Jess and Jules rather than me (Rob), so you can draw your own conclusions about that!

Please note in the photo that we’re strictly obeying the speed limit - but don’t speculate too much on how we took the photo!

Don't Tell the 'Health & Safety' People !

We finally managed to get around to hanging the monster sized prize winning painting by Sheila Manwaring.  When we chose the frame we really didn't give much thought to how heavy it was - and trust me, it is very heavy.  The picture just makes it look like we're managing to hang it with ease - it doesn't reflect the groaning and mild degree of panic!

We can make excellent frames, but hanging is not one of our (Rob's) great skills.  But undeterred, and with a little help, the beast is now hanging in pride of place.  It looks fantastic, so do call in and admire it for yourself - and see if you can name all the Harborough buildings.

A New Year

Well, we're back (Happy New Year everyone).  The break was good and we're ready for another busy year (hopefully). 

We've decided that we should permanently have a large frame standing in the workshop.  We've just finished printing and framing our competition winning picture by Sheila Manwaring and it's all ready to hang on the wall.  In the mean time it has been the main topic of conversation with everyone who's called into the workshop.  It's a huge striking piece - in a very expensive frame!  It also weighs a lot!

It's been much admired both for its frame and, indeed, for Sheila's lovely and imaginative work of art. 

It will eventually get on the wall when I find a fitting and chain strong enough.