Mat corner samples

[RozR]

After my first 6 months of being open - my husband and I did a major clean-up/clean-out in preparation for some new shelving and the busy (!) season.... I have a multitude of mat corner samples from Bainbridge, Crescent and Larson Juhl... BUT I try to only offer archival mats but have one "value line" special which offers papermats... so, the question is: Which corner samples to you carry/use the most and recommend over the long haul? I love the variety but don't have room for all of them in the design area... but feel if I have a customer who is trying to match a previous mat - I have a better chance to match it.

Also, what is the best verbage for use of archival vs. regular paper mats... I "know" it is better but stumble on the explanation...need a good script writer! :D

Thanks, Roz

[EllenAtHowards]

I am in Webster, NY this weekend visiting my grandchildren, and got to meet Roz. She has a really good shop... well diversified... good location, etc. As to the subject at hand: paper vs archival... We don't even show paper mats. We refer to the non-fabric mats as rag mats (don't utter the word 'paper' in my shop!) We DO sell paper mats, mostly because when we bought the store we also bought a basement full of the stuff. When someone comes in and asks for 'matboard', I ask them, papermat or rag mat? When they ask the difference, I say, "The good stuff ain't cheap and the cheap stuff ain't good." It gets a laugh and usually sells 'the good stuff' except for this one regionally well-know artist, who INSISTS that he will go broke if he uses rag mats on his work... uh huh.

[Ron Eggers]

Roz,

I show EVERYTHING. All the Artique, all the Bainbridge, all the Crescent (except the whitecore and the new select) and all the Miller/Tru Vu. They are grouped by color and stock and special-order mats are seperated. I stock 570 of them. I charge a lot for special-order boards and 90% of my mats are cut from stock boards. The only paper mats I carry are some of the Crescent specialty boards. BTW, I'm starting to use more 8-ply rag, especially with painted bevels. I really love that look.

I am guilty of calling the rag and alpha mats "acid-free." We probably could use some standardization of nomenclature. I wonder where we could get that.

http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0NACSDIISvN4X7IWX0f*tw*b0rx8KyShfNPTaXBfnxkb52MvRq 22xvxjqaVI7MxHMg9PQfGWQeInDgXXYqixxXw/rack5.jpg

[Janet L]

Roz, I only show the good stuff but I have paper mats under the counter (just in case). Have cut up alot of the paper matboard into small mats that customers can buy for a song.

[Leslie S.]

Roz,
In the past, I mainly sold Crecent rag and Miller/Tru-View (because I liked their colors), and the fabric Bainbridges. My Larson rep says I should sell Artique because it's about $1 per sheet cheaper, but somehow I just don't like it. Why? Don't know. Anyway, my mat drawers under the design counter were custom built for the 3" samples. When Bainbridge came out with the new 4" ones, I had drag out the old brass racks and put them back on the countertop, and guess what? I am now selling more Bainbridge! I don't know if it's the size, or the accessability! I seriously discourage the use of papermats, but still have the samples...well hidden.

[Kit]

I carry the Artiques - they have very nice whites and a black (4969) that is blacker than anything TruVue or Bainbridge makes.

But I don't love working with them. They are much more intolerant of a not-quite-new blade and ATG doesn't stick to them. (Anyone else notice this? My rep says it's just me. But that's what he ALWAYS says.)

I don't carry any paper mats at all.

Kit

[rosetl]

I, too, have had not favored the cutting of Artique and glad to hear it isn't just me, despite rep's protests. I've certainly noticed the "eating of ATG" that occurs from time to time, but had not attributed it to Artique.

We've pretty much settled on staying with BB Alpha & Rag and Crescent Rag and have them most convenient to the design table. Speciality boards are close, but separate as well. Last year we added a just oversize (40x60) rack that we filled with our old set of samples & additional manufacturer 40x60 samples.

If I need a regular mat board I use the specifiers.

Ron's set up looks great as do the carousel things I've seen. Just make sure whatever you do, you plan for expansion. Not that many years ago we had 2 racks and now I have the equivalent of 7 and don't keep all styles and colors anymore!

As to verbage -- I routinely now say "We prefer to only use the better quality mat boards."

[Emibub]

Ron, I have the same rack as you. I am in the process of finally switching to all 4 inch samples. Do you have 4" in the bottom rack? Or since you are so smart, is there a way to raise the top rack and inch or so? I'm not happy with the way they come out of the bottom, it is gonna make em dogeared. I just bought the rack and I suppose I could separate them, but I like having the double decker. I can't tell you how nice it is to have literally every sample I have in one rack.

[Ron Eggers]

Kathy, I have resisted the switch to 4" samples. But when Crescent starts shipping 4" samples of the rag mats (soon,) I'll probably order the Bainbridge and Artique 4" samples as well and put all the bigguns on the top rack and the smaller samples of the decorative mats on the bottom. Or I may have the top rack full of my stock boards and put all the special order boards on the bottom. I'll have to see how the numbers work out.

(I'm not sure where the Miller/Tru Vue samples would end up. They have been pretty quiet on the 4" sample issue.)

I can't separate the top and bottom racks without cutting. The end panels are solid. These are actually two 36" long double-deckers made by Showcase Acrylics in Chicago. I absolutely love 'em.

[Emibub]

Ron, I guess yours isn't exactly like mine then. Mine is from Olsen manufacturing. They come apart. The top rack sits in this plastic thingy. I really don't think there is a way to raise it, but thought it was worth a shot.

This is a call to arms for all mat companies. I now have to make the switch to the bigger samples. Mainly because I just got Bainbridge all in the bigger size. I think the rack looks awful with the varying sizes. Plus designing with a 4" bottom sample and a 2-3/4" top sample first of all defeats the purpose and visually isn't pleasing to look at. Sooooo, I want all one size and I will have to adjust accordingly. Although one of my reps told me Crescent is finally coming out with the bigger ones, I am not holding my breath. I love TV also but they just get lost with the bigger ones.

One more thing, I am considering displaying my samples by color only. I'm talking all companies together and all types together. I have all my specialty mats separate. But my theory is if I mix all of the fabrics and textured mats in I will sell more of them. I reach for the fabrics a lot, but if they were right there for me to fan through I'm thinking I will sell even more. Anybody else do that?

[Ron Eggers]

Originally posted by emibub:
I am considering displaying my samples by color only. Anybody else do that?Yes, indeed. All my samples - including fabrics - are grouped by color, according to a color wheel system that Bainbridge has embraced: Red tints, tones and shades, red-orange tints, tones and shades, etc. I actually used the Bainbridge samples as "templates" to sort the other boards and labeled them accordingly. Once you get used to it, it does make it MUCH easier to find a certain color and it does help you sell more fabrics.

[Hannu Nystrom]

Ron,

Thanks for posting a picture of your mat corner display. I'll show this to our folks the first thing on Monday. They sometimes complain about our "vast selection" and they hope we would have a little less of colors. My father thinks we need only two colors: white and off-white. We disqualified him from the counter work many years ago :D

We carry 150, all preservation quality and stock everything. Alphamats, Werner (Finnish manufacturer, mainly whites) and some Crescent. WhiteCore or Papermats we use only for volume framing, but CP quality is our first suggestion in these cases too. Why would I need 800 or 450 colors when my carefully selected 150 seems to do the job really well? Is it worth the hassle carrying the large inventory?

Whenever customer seems willing to hear about the quality issues, I show a sample of 15-year-old double papermat - you know what the undermat looks like.

I think if it's worth framing, it's worth using CP mats.

Hannu

[Rick Bergeron - CPF]

Kathy,

We have a pair of 36 inch double-tiered Olson racks and the 4 inch corners fit just fine on both levels. The bottom racks actually sit down in a recess between our two design tables and we have to sort of curl the samples into the racks. We sort everything by color, similar to Ron, and it has not been a problem with varying sized corners. It actually makes sorting the samples easier. We just received the 4 inch TruVue corners last week, so the only small ones left in the rack are Crescent. I don't remember why they came, but we even have a few 5 inch Artique samples on the top rack.

You'll never have them all the same size; the 4 inch Artiques are slightly larger than the 4 inch Bainbridge and TruVue.

[B. Newman]

My problem with a rack like that (sitting front to back on the design table) is that as a very small person, I have a very small "reach". I can barely reach across a 30" wide table. How do you "physically" work with a rack so big?

I have 1 18" metal rack in front and a 12" rack in back, sort of diagonally situated on each end of the table. I'm not real happy with the arrangement, but haven't come up with anything better yet.

And, uh Ron, you wouldn't happen to have a list of how those Crescent mat boards "integrated" with the others do you? Betcha could get a good price for a copy! (Said one whould gladly be a purchaser of such a list...)

Betty

[Ron Eggers]

Betty, I'm 6'2" and the only way I can access the samples in this rack is from the side. That's what I do.

I can email an attachment with my version of the color wheel categories for all my mat samples, There are a handful of new colors I don't have samples for, so there are no colors for those either. You may look at some of my choices and say, "This guy is color blind!" That's exactly what I thought when I saw some of the "official" Bainbridge color categories. Feel free to make adjustments.

Would you prefer a works database (which version?,) a text and commas (.csv) file, a text and tabs (.txt) file, a dBase IV (.dbf) file or a dBase III (also .dbf) file?

I can't think of any reason why I shouldn't share this with you or anyone else who might be interested. You've always been pretty liberal about sharing what you've learned.

[B. Newman]

Originally posted by Ron_Eggers:
Would you prefer a works database (which version?,) a text and commas (.csv) file, a text and tabs (.txt) file, a dBase IV (.dbf) file or a dBase III (also .dbf) file?

Huh? :eek: Ya got me there!

I don't know what any of these are. I have Windows 2000 Small business edition. So I have Word, Excel, Access, and Publisher. You tell me what I want.

And thanks.

Betty

[Ron Eggers]

Betty, I'm going to send you the .csv file. You'll be able to open it with Excel. Just save it and double-click on it. You will have to adjust some field widths, but it should work just fine. Let me know if you have any trouble or questions.

[RozR]

Ron.... I would really appreciate a copy as well... I have the same programs Betty has... so send the same for me - pleez!!

Thanks so much!!

Roz :D

[RozR]

Wanted to comment on the Artique Matboard as well. When I first opened in March - I used that exclusively - and did not like the surface quality and thought it cut poorly, too. Well, isn't it interesting that so many of us have similar complaints and I too have voiced these to my rep. I love the colors, I love the price, I like the 4" samples - but the quality is not that of the Bainbridge... And even though I have only be in the framing business a short while I have been in graphic arts my entire life and have many years of experience with Paper of all sorts.. and it is the paper on the surface of the mat boards that gives the quality look and feel...

I still want to hear the WORDS to use to validate the archival mat boards as opposed to (shhhh, for Ellen!) Paper mats! I like Ellen's: "Good ain't cheap, and cheap ain't good" - I think I can get away with that verbage with 95% of my customers!!

Roz :rolleyes:

[RozR]

I'm excited! I just found the words:

"Latest colors and solid white archival core for clean, consistent bevels,.... fade resistant and bleed resistant with color consistency for colors that stay true for the life of your art."

Thank you Bainbridge Specifier, page 4!!! (They have good copywriters!)
:D :D :D :D :D

[maurie]

I too have had trouble with artique mats, but only the smooth surface. The textured seems to cut ok.