Tests, tests, tests . . . . .

For ages now we’ve been threatening to subject Jess to the stresses of passing her Guild Commended Framer (GCF). Our excuse about too busy just didn’t seem to go away, so we’re ignoring it and Jess’s training is underway.

We’re pretty sure that she’ll fly through the exams and we can add the GCF ta got Jess’s name. Watch this space ! . . . .  

January and the Picture Framing world.

2014 started with a real bang for us and it felt a little like where we left off before Christmas, so that’s my usual excuse for taking so long to update our blog. 

The New Year has brought us the usual fantastic range of items to be framed, from large to small, from pleasant and cheerful to the elaborate and pricey!

Back at work in January tends to be the time when you reflect on the previous business year. When talking to other businesses around us, it struck me that by comparison our industry has a really good bunch of suppliers. The companies that we deal with have all been reliable, pleasant and professional . Without this our life would be harder. Maybe because the picture framing world is primarily a friendly one, that (almost) everyone in is equally pleasant. Certainly having to solve the odd crisis always shows the best in our suppliers - they really do come up with the goods (literally) when we need them to.  

So, belatedly, happy new year to all our suppliers - and can we have a bit more extended credit? (if you don’t ask, you don’t get!)

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 !