Exhibition Season is Here !

Well June and July are proving a busy couple of months and the ‘exhibition season’ gets fully underway. Last weekend we were privileged to attend the opening of a one man exhibition by Chris Prout at the Alfred East gallery in Kettering. Blimey it was packed!

I haven’t previously mentioned any of ‘our artists’ (i.e. artists we do work for – not artists we own!) but I think that ought to change – starting now. Chris is an extremely talented chap and we know he’s been stressing on the run up to this showing of 50 of his originals. He was also kind enough to credit us as one of the sponsors – although we didn’t actually do much to help (but thanks anyway!).

If you get a chance, do pop over and see his works. It’s a cut above what you’d see in the everyday (same old, same old) high street galleries. And for those of you who like to invest in art, here’s a tip: . . . . . . by an original now – the feeling is that it will soon be an investment that you’re glad you made!

Information on the gallery can be found at http://www.kettering.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=1196 and Chris’s own site is worth a read http://http://www.chrisproutart.com/

In the mean time we’ll continue with the rather last list of frames that need doing. Blimey we get to see some nice stuff come through the workshop – and this week’s beena real gem for that. It’s a real shame more people don’t get to see these works. Anybody want to lend us a gallery?!

You Want How Many ? !

Every time I think I ought to make a blog entry I’m convinced that only a couple of weeks have passed since my last ramblings. I’m horrified to see the date of the last posting in March!

Well the only good thing is that we’ve been extremely busy (thankfully), so my excuse is valid. Over the last couple of months we’ve seen many new customers and added some very talented artists and photographers to our list of customers.

A great chunk of May was taken up with our biggest order ever (from one of our favourite clients) which turned us into a factory unit for a while! 11 hours a day standing at a bench doing a repetitive task is a good reminder of why most of us need variation in our work! But looking at all the boxes ready for delivering is actually quite satisfying. And the picture only shows some of them!

Getting There

A quick update on the workshop. The new flooring has gone down (less dust!), the blinds have been fitted (less sunburn!) and we actually have a ‘chevron wall’ (less rummaging in boxes!).

We’ve started some local advertising and we’ve seen a few new local customers walking in. All very welcome.

We’re working with a new local designer who is giving our marketing stuff a general going over. We’re very excited by his designs and hopefully we will soon see a new set of brochures and a very colourful van!

I know a lot of this is not the most exciting thing for our customers and those of you who read our blog, but as anyone who has run their own small business will know, these little advances are what can make the job (and the risks) a little more satisfying. Obviously a lot of customers paying lots of money can also make business satisfying, but hey . . . . . you can’t have everything.

It's a Record

Not the fact that Bristish Gas did finally connect the supply, nor the fact that BT (after many bodges)eventually installed the phone lines, but the fact that thanks to our kind customers we have had our busiest and biggest month ever. We’re so relieved that we moved just in time. There is no way we could have managed the volume of work from our old premises.

February came and went in a blur and I haven’t even managed a photo for this blog.  Our new workshops are proving fantastic and a really nice place to work from. Now that we're warm and connected to the world it's all good.  We’ve nearly finished all the work we wanted to do on it. Just a bit of flooring and some blinds to fit and then we’ll be very ready to welcome everybody. We may even have a opening party (which by putting it in this blog will make me get around to organising it!).

The various artists who we do work for seem busy and we’ve seen some very nice works coming through. I may start putting some images on the blog as they come in. There is so much nice stuff that never gets seen – I really must do something about it.  I'll add it to my list.

Up & Running ?

Far from finished, but at least we’re in production again. The printers are all printing (which is amazing considering one of them had to be turned on its end to get it down a flight of stairs), the underpinner is hissing away nicely, the large glass and board guillotine has been recalibrated (they don’t like being moved) and we’ve even taken delivery of our new and updated computerised mount cutter – and very nice it is too! The vacuum press is getting hot, sucking air and pressing things as it is supposed to and the trusty Morso moulding guillotine is chopping beautifully.

So all in all we’re back to work and the batches of orders have started to leave the building. It’s nice to see a few of our customers calling in to drop off or collect their work and we hope to see many more. All are welcome.

Next week we hope that BT will put us some phone lines in and get our broadband up and running. We currently feel a little incommunicado! And it would also be nice if British Gas could supply us some gas so that we could get warm!!!!! (I shall avoid the temptation to rant again).

Work in Progress

It’s now been 8 days since we heaved everything out of our previous workshop and studio and the new unit is starting to take shape. It’s basically a form of organised turmoil.
As ever we could do with about twice the amount of room that we have, but it’s certainly a massive improvement on our previous layout and it’s nice to get everything under one roof.

If British Gas had been more efficient than their current track record in making a complete pig’s ear of connecting us to the gas (it was only the 1st week in October when we tried to order it) then we’d even be warm as well !! As it is, we’re freezing. These big companies are truly useless. Which reminds me – BT can’t get us a phone or internet connection until February and their sale chap even said that it would probably be later than that because their “estimates are rubbish”. Let’s hope their Directors all get good bonuses.

Anyway, that’s enough moaning from me. The airlines are connected, the new tables have been made and the computerised cutting equipment is up and running again. It’ll be a couple more days before we know whether our wide format printer survived being turned on it’s end to get it down a flight of stairs (with the help of 4 big friends – thanks chaps).

On the Edge are On the Up

Well, after months of thinking about it we’ve finally signed the lease on a new workshop. The thought of having so much room is great. In reality we know it’ll end up filled to the brim and we’ll want something bigger, but for now it’s going to be fantastic.

Our workshops at home are crammed to overflowing and even the house has been used as a store room for all our customers’ lovely art, so to ‘get our house back’ is going to be a real boon.

It’s very near to the centre of Market Harborough, so for those customers who like to call on us we’ll no longer need to explain how to find the rural depths of Gumley.

All we’ve got to do now is move an awful lot of equipment, and stock . . . and get the gas connected, and get new phone lines . . . and move all the computers . . . and get a new phone system and . . . get a new phone number and . . . . . . Oh blimey, I better get on with it!