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Sherry Lee

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
Posts
2,228
Loc
Phoenix, Az.
What one framing 'thing' do you dread doing the most? I'm beginning to think that mine is stretching canvases and I'm determined to keep doing them until I get over that. Sure hope I do!

But as I thought about this, I wondered what other framers hate to see coming through the door the most.
 
Large, loose pastels. Oh yeah, and those cheap Chinese embroideries on white silk with paper borders that have been creased and folded.
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Rick
 
A large piece of corrugated cardboard with about five hundred little photographs attached with "glue dots."

No part of this masterwork is flat and none of its edges are strait.

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Needlepoint... God how I hate needlepoint. Nasty parallelograms that will never see ninety degree angles.
 
Worse than needlepoint? Dirty needlepoint! And they don't want to have it dry cleaned... And they want a mat, but no glass... And they want you to put it in a 3-sided metal frame with a busted slide-in easel back that they bought at Woolworths in 1953. Petuuuuuey!
 
I'm w/Ruth on Susan, I hate needlepoint! Beyond that, it would be the customer w/frame and nasty, scratched acrylic that wants their college diploma matted and framed into THAT!
 
Hey, I wanna be with Ruth on Susan!

Sorry. Where ARE those moderators?

No question here. Latch hook rugs.

Not a problem any more, though. My shop policy says, "No latch hook rugs or road kill."

People have argued with me about both policies.
 
36x48 pastel portrait framed with a hand wrapped black suede, 3/16 bullnosed filet and glazed with acrylic (in December).
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Worse than needlepoint? Dirty needlepoint! And they don't want to have it dry cleaned... And they want a mat, but no glass... And they want you to put it in a 3-sided metal frame with a busted slide-in easel back that they bought at Woolworths in 1953. Petuuuuuey
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And it's hopelessly out of square and they want you to cut the mat so that not a single tiny bit of any of the stitching is covered up.
 
Originally posted by richm:
36x48 pastel portrait framed with a hand wrapped black suede, 3/16 bullnosed filet and glazed with acrylic (in December).
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Your designer should be strung up.

Is it you?
 
I hate anything that comes in a brown paper bag, and clinks. It usually has lots of little pieces of shattered glass in it.

Oh, and those Inspirational posters from Portal that are 11 3/4 by 36. The people who buy them never want to spend a lot framing them. (I wonder why they don't just stick them up with push pins like any sane person)

Susan, you *did* add a PITA charge on that needlework, right?
 
Hannah... We can't use *PITA* and *Ruth on Susan* in the same thread. It sounds like a deli special from the Chocolate Cafe. :D
 
It used to be needlework but now it is military medals and leather stuff to be mounted in a shadow box e.g. anything I can't use Attach-EZ on.
 
Customer: I want a nice oak frame for this.

Me: We have nice frames; we have oak frames. Make up your mind.

Kit
 
Not so much TK prints (posters) as having to listen to the owners telling me how purdy it is. I see them coming in and cringe!
 
Right about now I would gladly frame a latch hook rug by TK with a dirty octagon shaped needlepoint of a dead animal in the middle. :D
 
Getting up in the morning and coming to work. Especially on a nice, sunny day. Can you say "spring fever"?

I love to frame needlework. I have made some pretty lousy work look pretty darn good. I love the challenge.

I hate having to use someones old, junky, frame. I charge double for fitting that junk, and sometimes even that is not enough. I refuse them if the corners wobble.
 
Matoaka and Janet. I'm with them. Grrr....readymade, smeadymade.....I hate readymades. I have made a rule not to fit into customers frames anymore either. They fall apart, chip, flake, and generally waste my time.
 
I love those people that come in with their OLD frame, especially the ones that still have print and mat in it and want us to take it apart and put their "new" print in it and the new print is too large AND they want new double mat ...and that surely won't fit!!

I just have to wonder....do you see that the frame is too small for this print?

Happy day anyway!!
 
I've learned that some of you will not use an old frame that someone has brought in.

Do many of you refuse to use 'old' frames? Or just 'rickety old frames' (weak corners, etc.).
 
Sherry, I'll even reuse the rickety old frames, but I charge to tear them down, sand the corners with the AMP miter sander, and rebuild them.

Sometimes it's more economical to buy a new frame, but sometimes the old frame has some meaning to them.
 
We will use a customers old frame. We do charge extra based on the work that is required.

I don't like the frames sometimes cheater frames. The back of the frame is on an angle and there is little or nothing to attach the backing paper to.
 
And sometimes nothing to clamp into the vise.

Straps don't work on them, either.

Underpinner? Nope.

I recently put some together using contact cement to hold the corners long-enough to get some harware into them. Luckily, they were very soft wood. I charged $80 each to join four of them, and it wasn't enough.

Long story, better suited for Warped.
 
Those old shell-back frames from the 50's are one of the few things I'll refuse even to try to fix.

It's difficult to explain to customers that, just because something belonged to their grandmother, it doesn't necessarily have value today.

Kit
 
Sherry Lee,
Well, I used to do anything on any old frame. Including disassembling, cutting down and reassembling. Then I started to limit. Now in fairness to everyone, i just don't do it. How can I say to one person, "I will fit into you're frame, but not into yours." to someone else. Had a woman bring in a new frame she bought from somewhere else. it started to crumble as I was fittinginto it. She blamed me of course. So i didn't charge her for the glass or the mat or the fitting , to cover the cost of a new frame, which I am sure she never went to get. That was it. No more. Period. ALSO, I type on any invoice for "just a mat" ...."Customer supplied measurements, no artwork, cannot guarantee fit."
Gee I really sound like a bitty don't I.
 
Ron said (referring to old frames):
<<I recently put some together using contact cement to hold the corners long-enough to get some harware into them. Luckily, they were very soft wood. I charged $80 each to join four of them, and it wasn't enough.>>

Ron, what hardware? Did you drive nails or use manual v-nails??? I know some of this wood is SO dry, I fear splitting it...thus my question.
 
Sherry, this wood was so soft, I used a brad pusher to nail it after joining the corners with contact cement.

If you've never seen one, it looks kinda like an awl, but it holds a single brad and helps guide it as you push it into the wood. It's handy for attaching liners into frames, but I have never before used it to JOIN a frame.

And I never will again.
 
Oh yes, I have an "inherited" brad pusher, but have never used it to date.

By the way, I don't know what happened to your quote that I typed. On my computer, it didn't come out at all...just shows <>. It was there before I added the reply. ????

Thanks for the info....may have to resort to it some day!
 
Originally posted by sumik:
Sherry Lee,
ALSO, I type on any invoice for "just a mat" ...."Customer supplied measurements, no artwork, cannot guarantee fit."
Gee I really sound like a bitty don't I.
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I write the same thing on mat only orders where I have nothing to measure. I learned the hard way after having to recut mats when the customer supplied the wrong measurements. It's also why I insist on someone schlepping in artwork when they want a frame and they are positive their measurements are right. Saves me and the guys in our shop a lot of extra work.
 
I used to work at a place where the owner FELT BAD FOR FOLKS WITH BAD FRAMES. So I was the "fixer"...that was a headache. I basically recreated 2/3 of the frame by hand, spacal, with a drummel, sander, toothpick, and some paints. It took me about six hours and of course we charged nothing, or nothing in our eyes. It looked good, I was even surprised. Never again though.
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