How do they face themselves in the morning?

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Verdaccio

Verdaccio

MGF, Master Grumble Framer
Joined
Jan 22, 2007
Posts
757
Loc
Berthoud, Colorado
UGH!

I have a job in to replace the backing paper on a piece that has a sticker from a chain framing operation in Steamboat Springs, Colorado...

Starts with a nice Japanese print, but it goes downhill from there...

permanent mounted the print to corrugated cardboard...:faintthud:

Paper mats that have already acid burned the print, are overcut, and are uneven.:faintthud:

Poorly made frame with nail holes showing, poor joints, and no bumpons.:faintthud:

It is like encountering a wounded animal that you cannot save. Customer did not want to replace mats given the print condition. I just put it back together with clean glass, new paper on the back, touched up the frame, and wrapped it up...not putting my sticker on it, no Sir...

Bah...:cry:
 
Hey Michael ...How old do you think this frame package is? Unfortunately their is quite a bit out there that was done so long ago that many, if not most, of practices that were acceptable then are now known to be framer's deadly sins.

I don't put my sticker on any job I did not do from start to finish ...or, if deemed acceptable, I sometimes will put my sticker on it and note the framing components that were original re-used under the dust cover.
 
Dave's right, of course. I'm guilty of some things that NOW I'd call framing atrocities. Hinging with pressure sensitive tape (the box said acid-free!), dry mounting original art and diplomas...I could go on but I might cry.

After a couple of moves the corners of a cross-nailed frame can look a whole lot worse for wear, so that also could be due to age. But in all my years (and it's a respectable number) mounting on corrugated was never considered a "best practice".
 
My guess is 10-15 years old. Yea, conservation techniques were not as well understood 20-30 years ago, but the cardboard just floored me.
 
just got one in today..nice limited edition print taped to paper mat all around (top, bottom, sides) and then atg'd to a piece of cardboard..and the artist signed it on the back on the cardboard...metal frame with tape holding in the cardboard instead of at least spring clips..and it had a bb label on it..about 4 ears old ( of course it had clear cheap glass chipped on all the edges ?????? who would do this kind of work even at a bb?
 
I'd have to say that these are probably cheap ready-made art buys and not an accurate example of the framing work done at one of these places. I love to complain about them as a competitor but some great grumblers have come from these "establishments".

I have seen undermats made from strips, I've seen "mats" cobbed together from the paper peeled off of "real mats", I've seen bottom mats that are 1/2 inch bigger than the openings of the top mats, but these nightmares have been from readymade, motel art sold on the side of the road or as part of commercial projects. Factory framing jobs and not framed at the stores that sold them.

So complain about the practices, the shoddy workmanship, the mat selections but be sure you know the work was done by the person/company you are accusing. Big hint is that if it is a readymade size it may have been done in a factory, and not a "big box mill".
 
I'm embarassed by some of the things I did when I was new to the game. I have to say that that framing sounds like it was done a while ago.
 
Shall we all confess? I used to staple needlework to upson board as a matter of routine. And a paper mat on top with rag mat underneath was fine, too. Also have lined a few mats with 2 ply rag strips to "archival it up a little"... Hope they never find me. And if you see a Framing Van sticker, don't think ill of me, because I don't do those things anymore, I swear.
 
Okay, I'll confess too....I silicone-sealed down anything that would hold still.

And Ellen, I also stapled needlework to that thick "needlework board" (that's what it was called in the catalogue!), except I used qult batting underneath and.....(shudder)....no glass (so it could breathe...hack-hack!).
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shame, shame.....
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Don't you wonder what we're doing now that we think is perfectly safe and acceptable that will come back to bite us in the rear 20 years from now??
 
Hey, I do bad stuff today. I drymount posters and put them up against the glass, no mats or spacers, all the time. Did one today. Put my sticker on the back, too. Customer was very pleased.

But now I have all sorts of ideas for how to use up all that leftover cardboard!!
 
I'm sure that anyone who has been in this business for more than 10 years have the stories to tell of the "accepted" ways of framing. I'm sure we can all remember when the choice of glazing was "regular", non-glare (the acid etched kind) and the plastic stuff call plexiglass. How long has it been since acid free products were introduced to us? Remember when Crescent matboard company said their regular mats had "acid free paper backing to protect your art"? And how about "You can have any color of rag mat as long as it was white or cream"?

I know I have done some things that wouldn't stand up to todays standards. I know I still do things some people would cringe at. But then most framers did/do the same thing. We all learned from the books, "Freshman Framer revisited #1-3", "The Framer's Answer book", "More Answers for the Framer" and my favorite "techniques in framing Needlework and Fabric Art". And today we continue to learn new techniques and use new products.

Who knows, in ten years those coming into the framing profession might look at the things we thought were done using the gold standard of framing and say "How on earth could they have framed it this way?!?!" I personally don't worry about how I did things in the past coming back to "bite me" as I know I did the best with what we had to work with.
p.s. Happy Halloween, everyone.
 
I've never used corrugated cardboard in any framing, or rubber cement, or masking tape, or lots of other terrible things that we see in the factory framing from China and Brazil, et al. There will always be another way to cut a penny or two out of the cost of framing, and some of those factories are on a constant quest to save just one more penny on every frame, just so it looks good until they get it home.

That said, threads like this make me a little uncomfortable, for a couple of reasons.

First, I guess all of us have been guilty of ignorant framing during our salad days in this business. We learn, we progress, and we probably should not condemn those who are behind us on the learnng curve. There will always be some ignorant framers out there, but some day they will know better, too. We are here to help them, not to shame them.

Second, a lot of us who know the consequences commit what others consider to be atrocities in framing. I do on occasion, even though I enjoy good framing and do everything I can to learn the best ways to do things inside a frame package. I think junk framing is appropriate in some cases. The $29.95 double-matted, 16x20 framed prints at Bed Bath & Beyond serve a specific price point. Sure, we have to compete with that and it gives us pain to produce at such a low level, but we do it anyway. That may be the difference between framing as a hobby and framing as a business. We're not doing it for us; we're doing it for money.

When we sell cheap & dirty framing, our main obligation is to represent it accurately; to make sure the buyer is aware of its limitations as well as its obvious attribute of low cost.

If we properly represent the value of our work -- regardless of its position on the quality scale, high or low -- the buyer of that throw-away framing would at least understand the differences, and might recognize the value of owning something better later. I always feel good when a customer starts out with cheap, decorative framing of disposable art, and then comes back to me to buy framing for something of significant personal value.
 
One thing I can say is that I have never used corrugated cardboard either. The reason is that one time, at a BIG military presentation, someone gave a muckety muck a lovely certificate, framed, which he held up for all to see. The 'framer' had used a piece of cardboard cut from a glass carton. Unfortunately, the first two letters had been trimmed off, and so, there for all to see, showing through the paper, was the remainder of the word GLASS.
 
I got one in today that was new even to me: it was an amazingly unfaded Gauguin poster that had been attached to matting with double stick tape, masking tape, in the corners that white stuff like gum that sticks something to a wall.........and.........caulking - from a caulking gun!!! Plus corrugated on the back and a flimsy wood frame that recently self-destructed.

It has sentimental value so customer is going all out to reframe it properly.

Cool.
 
Yesterday, I took in 10 small mid-1800's engravings that had been professionally framed about 15 years ago. Paper mats have badly burned the edges, not to mention the no-longer-sticky masking tape barely holding them (all the way around) onto corrugated cardboard (cut from a box, had printing on it) and packing-taped around the back for a dust cover. Shower door glass (that old non-glare stuff). The framer had even written on each print the dimension of the mat and frame! On the print!!

Poor things. Customer doesn't want to take them to a conservator, they "aren't worth that" to her, but sentimentally important enough to completely reframe all of them, with the proper mat and mount treatment , seal the inside of the frames, and museum glass. Most of the damage will be hidden under the mats.

The "professional framer" didn't leave a sticker on the back of any of them. Shame. Sorry, but 15 years ago, we still knew better than corrugated and masking tape, and not to write on the prints and I'm not accepting the "didn't know any better" excuse for this one.
 
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