Hardly Earth Shattering News

Well it's a sad confession that we don't seem to have anything interesting to say about our world of framing and art printing.  I could use the excuse that we've been very busy (which we have) but I know that I've used that excuse in previous blogs.

 

But the truth is that the customers keep coming (thank you all so much!) and the weeks just fly by.  We're still seeing some fantastic pieces of art and some really nice photography, but don't seem to have time to write about them. 

 

About the most interesting thing to happen is that we've finally got around building the customer counter in the workshop.  This in itself is not that interesting were not for the fact that I built it!  Now those of you who know me will know what an achievement this is.  However, I'm not willing to confess how long it took me to build.  Let's just say that the carpenters in the area are not under any threat from me!  But hey, it's built, and it's strong enough to lean on!

 

Finally, has anyone noticed the word 'Christmas' has started to be mentioned!

 

 

Where did that year go?

Remarkably it was a year today that Jess first came to work with us – just to get some experience (thus proving that we can fool some of the people some of the time!)  Well she forgot to leave and now we couldn’t do without her.  It’s also true to say that with 1 year under her belt that I can no longer fool her any of the time!  

We need very little excuse to eat cake in the workshop, so today’s celebration was a must ! 

Many of our customers already know Jess as part of our small team.  Jess is a comfortable framing as she is working with the digital print side of our business.  She also shares Jules’s eye for colour and style when helping customers to select their frames.

 

 

We could say she’s pretty good at everything, but we can’t, because she’s absolutely rubbish at parking the van.  So at least I’m still better than her at one thing!

Ooo, it's so long !

Our giclée printers spend most of their time producing fine art prints or large format photography, but from time to time we have been asked to print off various family trees.

Since our first print of these a few years back, our customer has been feverishly researching her family history.  Having tracked down her ancestors far and wide, the print is now 5.7 metres long! 

These are definitely the longest prints we have had to produce.  It does make a pleasant change from art once in a while !

You Won't Miss Us Now !

The trusty van has (finally) had a facelift and nice new shiny set of graphics.  Most of the previous sign-writing was out of date (and hence a pack of lies!) so it was well overdue. 

Jules wanted something that could be seen . . . .  and the new design can definitely be seen!!!!

Give us a wave if you see us about.

It's a Significant Number (for us) . . . .

Last week saw us reach a particular threshold in our business as Mr & Mrs Stanley unwittingly became new customers that meant our total customer accounts had reached a significant number.  We’re shy about numbers so we’re not going to say exactly how many, but it had a good few noughts on it!

We thought we couldn’t let the event go unnoticed so we presented Mr & Mrs Stanley with a rather nice case of wine and a jolly looking plant.  We even decided it would be wrong to charge for the framing of their lovely artist’s technical drawing of an Aston Martin on which Mr Stanley worked before his retirement.  We received a lovely letter of thanks from the Stanleys who you can see in the picture receiving the gifts. 

In case you’re wondering who the third ‘On the Edge’ girl is in the picture, it’s Lauren who joined us on work experience for a week.  Lauren did really well and is herself a very good artist.  I’m sure we’ll see more of her work as her art career progresses.

It's in the Can . . .

Well we had some fun today.  We finally got around to having some professional photographs taken of our workshops.  We need some pictures for our new website (yes, we are eventually going to update the website!) and no matter how good your camera is, and how well you know Photoshop (I use it every day), there is no substitute for a professional photographer with genuine creative skills. 

We’ve worked with Clipston based photographer Rob Leveritt for quite a while now, so he got the dodgy brief of trying to take interesting shots of picture framing in progress!  He didn’t even flinch when I asked for some shots to represent our laminating and dry mounting service!!!  Exciting stuff indeed!

The main thing we learnt is that the only time you should wear white shirts & blouses whilst picture framing is for a photo shoot - it’s a grubby business!

So the make-up has been packed away, the models have retired to their Winnebago and the shots are ‘in the can’.  We await the result with great interest.

Have a look at Rob’s web site, www.robertleverittphotography.com  he has a really unique flair for getting really natural portrait photography - so different from those factory-line portrait studios.

Summer's Coming . . . ?

I’ve just noticed that April’s blog I titled as “Winter’s Gone”.  Well that was premature wasn’t it!  But in case you need something positive to cling to, the great summer of 1976 didn’t start until June 22^nd, apparently, and it rained for the early weeks.  We can but hope!

Jubilee week has been and gone and we decided that we must be the only business that didn’t manage to apply even the most tenuous link between our products and the Queen’s big week (surely a red white and blue frame would look rubbish!) .  It became quite amusing seeing what other businesses managed to promote as being to “celebrate the jubilee”.

We are now fully in the flow of exhibition season again.  The deadlines are getting shorter, the feeling of panic is rising amongst some artists (and us) and some of the exhibition rules on sizes, finishes and hangings appear to need a degree in deciphering!  Happy days!