Alphamat problem

[osgood]

A few days ago I ordered a couple of sheets of Olive Grove Alphamat (for the first time) for an urgent job consisting of two frames to go on a boat.
The corner I had was a couple of years old and the pattern was very quiet and subtle looking.
When the sheets arrived I was shocked at the appearance. They had almost no resemblance to the corner sample. In fact the only resemblance was the fact that both had large leaves on them.
They appeared to have been made by a totally different process and in fact looked absolutely awful. I have no idea what use they would have.
My supplier had not informed me of any change and I guess Bainbridge had never informed them of a change either. How they didn't notice it themselves, I will never know.
I would have thought that it would not have been a lot of trouble for a manufacturer to tell its distributors to notify framers of a change and send out new samples.
I wonder what else has been changed. I will have to get a new set of sample corners from my supplier, but then again, usually when we get new samples down here, some are out of date anyway.
I know it will be of no use to contact Bainbridge by email to register my annoyance, because I have contacted them before and got no reply.
Registering my annoyance here on the Grumble seems to be the best option.

 

[Rick Granick]

Ormond: Yeah, they changed those not too long after they were first released. I liked the old ones better too. You may not have received the updated samples due to your location. I mostly use these for inner mats anyway, and by the time you only see a sliver of it it's actually pretty nice- kind of an updated marble look. I suppose it might come in handy for a shadowbox background, but even for that use the older more abstract ones would have been less of a distraction.
For your immediate purpose, could you experiment with sponge-painting a subtle texture over the pattern to tone down the detail and color a bit? If your project doesn't call for a full sheet you could use the cutoffs to play around with.
Rick