Christmas has arrived - again !

Well Christmas is here again with November and December having flown by. The end of the world as predicted by the Mayan civilisation hasn’t happened, although when we all went down with the winter virus with a week to go and a huge order board it felt a little as though the end of the world was nigh. But as usual, we survived and everything got made in time.

We’re just reviewing all the things we said we’d do in 2012 and realising how many we haven’t done - but also how much we have done.

As ever a huge thanks to all our customers without whom we wouldn’t have a business (obviously). We wish you all a Happy Christmas and a great New Year.

Mounts Make Cash!

To everyone who has taken some of our mountboard off-cuts and put a little cash in the Headway charity bottle we're pleased to say we've filled the 2nd collection box to the tune of £125.53.

Headway (the Brain Injury Association) is a fantastic charity that does great work throughout the UK.  In some ways it's not the highest profile name in the charity world, but I bet if you ask a few people you'll be amazed at just how many have a friend, colleague or family member that has been helped (and indeed rely upon) Headway.  You can read a little more about them at www.headway.org.uk

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.