WHY?

Create a Post
Terry Hart cpf

Terry Hart cpf

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Sep 23, 2003
Posts
2,087
Loc
Excelsior, MN
Why do they do it? A customer brought in a signed, numbered Roy Lichtenstein serigraph for reframing. It looked to be floated on an undersized piece of 4ply rag mounted on another rag board & then a rag mat with opening exposing the entire sheet of paper. It appeared to be glazed with museum glass. I told the customer as far as I could tell everything looked fine but could check closer when out of the frame. Well, turns out the piece is fastened to the rag mat around the entire perimeter with some sort of double stick tape! Why, why, why would you bother useing rag mat & museum glass & think that's the way to mount it?
 
Terry Hart cpf said:
Why do they do it? A customer brought in a signed, numbered Roy Lichtenstein serigraph for reframing. It looked to be floated on an undersized piece of 4ply rag mounted on another rag board & then a rag mat with opening exposing the entire sheet of paper. It appeared to be glazed with museum glass. I told the customer as far as I could tell everything looked fine but could check closer when out of the frame. Well, turns out the piece is fastened to the rag mat around the entire perimeter with some sort of double stick tape! Why, why, why would you bother useing rag mat & museum glass & think that's the way to mount it?
Click to expand...

I believe they call that a Gallery Mount.
 
I sense a trend here

Must have been framed by the same place that framed one we just re-did -- everything looks nice from the front, but open it up and.....

Ever open up something purchased at a Wentworth Gallery?:eek:

Tony
 
I see enough of "you think that they would know better" to write a book. Back before Giclee, there was a gallery in Naples Florida that thought that museum standard was to dry mount to acid free foam board. I spoke with them about the errors of their ways, and they said that their customers preferred the art flat. oy.
I re-framed a collection of McKnights and Niemans and they were all dry mounted.
The conservators look upon it as job security.

The worst was a piece for a local gallery that was having an opening of contemporary American printmakers. One of the pieces had slipped in the frame and they sent it to be fixed. The piece was about 48"x 24" had been float mounted using 30 little cylinders of adhesive tape (maybe surgical tape...that's acid free...right?). I peeled off the tape and re-hinged using Japanese paper and Nori, and sent the original hinging material back to the gallery in an envelope.
 
Ignorance?

:(

I've heard it's not a sin, but oh my!

I just opened up an original watercolor to remat and frame...it had rag mats but was ATG on all four sides to a papermat backing board!

Dave Makielski
 
Yup ...just opened the second one for same customer to remat and frame ...corrugated cardboard back and surprise Tru-Vu UV clear glass ...installed backwards! ...or is that inside out ...I'm not sure, maybe it's sideways.:cry:

:faintthud:

Dave Makielski
 
There is a multi-store framer up in San Francisco. A woman came into my shop recently, because she had placed a framing order with this other store, and in the middle of the project, they all discovered the moulding was discontinued. So instead of continuing with them, she came to me to complete the order (I was recommended by an existing customer who she was friends with).

Anyway, this SF store is no slouch. By all accounts, they do good work. They have locations in my neighborhood, in Pacific Heights, and in the antique district of Presidio Heights. Two of those three neighborhoods are quite tony. Indeed, the Presidio Heights location appears to carry only closed corner frames.

Well, the SF store had gotten as far as cutting a mat and mounting the print, before she brought the whole thing to me. The print was taped to the window mat, a long strip of pressure-sensitive tape along the entire top of the print. I was rather shocked.

Of course, this customer is extremely picky, too. She went through just about every moulding sample in my store before finally settling on one. When she came in to pick up the order, her face fell -- she didn't like the way the moulding looked. So now I've reframed it with another moulding, and I'm waiting for her to pick it up. Not sure what to do if she doesn't like this one either. Anyone want to buy an odd-size mirror in an LJ Ferrosa Bronze frame?
 
Boy oh boy, Paul...

I sure hope this doesn't turn into a case where the store just decided to discontinue anything she chose because she's difficult to work with and sent her your way ...

:nuts: Hope not.

What ya' gonna do if she doesn't like this one?

Do you know what friend sent her?

I guess you shouldn't worry about it unless it happens.

Dave Makielski
 
I certainly hope the watercolor I'm about to do from Mexico, doesn't get opened up down the road and someone think I hinged it to the masonite backing with what looks like hot glue. I wish it was hot glue but it doesn't want to give to be removed so it will stay on the masonite. It is a nice watercolor and the artist painted or used gesso on the backing, floated it, and slapped on glass and a frame. In this case, I'm sure the artist is to blame.
 
Dave said:
Boy oh boy, Paul...

I sure hope this doesn't turn into a case where the store just decided to discontinue anything she chose because she's difficult to work with and sent her your way ...

:nuts: Hope not.

What ya' gonna do if she doesn't like this one?

Do you know what friend sent her?

I guess you shouldn't worry about it unless it happens.

Dave Makielski
Click to expand...

Believe me, I'm worried about it. At some point, she just has to make up her mind. I charged her the difference in price between the new moulding and the old moulding, which pretty much just covered my cost. I think this time, I'd have to charge her full price for the new moulding, if she doesn't like it again.
 
She didn't pay with a check, did she??
 
Paul- you can tell she's loony: Who wouldn't like a Ferrosa?

JPete- Don't put your sticker on it. I don't put mine on anything that contains an element I wouldn't have been proud to have produced myself. Or, sometimes I'll include a note inside the frame package (on a small label I designed and printed) indicating that the item had been previously framed by others and had (fill in the blanks) existing conditions or damage.

:kaffeetrinker_2: Rick
 
HAH! See, I'm NOT the only one who uses the term ****.

Thank you Paul, thank you thank you thank you... now you can get in trouble with GG too... :thumbsup: :smileyshot22:
 
OMG!

OMG, you guys know what a **** is? Whew, then I won't have to explain it! (Story omitted after second thoughts). But, it was flattering all the same.... Not often do you get chatted up by your daughter's friends....
 
I go one step further to insure my name is not associated with a bad job....

I took in a piece to reframe and it too had been mounted so pourly I couldn't fix the problem.So on the board it was mounted on, I wrote..
"Picture This did not mount this piece and only re-framed for customer".

They looked great from the out-side so I put my sticker on it, but made sure for future reference that I was cleared of any bad framing!
:kaffeetrinker_2:
 
I only put my sticker on frames I made and if there is any invisible element in the package not up to what I would do I include a note under the dustcover about other already performed functions.

If a customer wants to reuse a mat, etc. and it isn't up to the standards I hold then I won't even put my sticker on it less someone thinks I did that 1/4" overcut on the mat.


"GOT ****?" :D It'd make a great T-Shirt.

Dave Makielski
 
O.K., here is my confession of a dodgy job I once did.

I had framed several pieces for a new gallery and, at their insistence it was all museum grade materials and none of my stamps or stickers on anything.

Just before the opening night, they brought in a slightly folded artists proof of a limited edition print and asked if I could "do something cheap to fix it up" as it wasn't really valuable and they just wanted it on display.

There was no time for a conservator to relax and flatten it so I suggested sticking it down on M.D.F. as a cheap means of flattening it and using a standard matt and they agreed to this.

When I attended the opening night I was horrified to find my "cheapie job" standing on an easel with a sign announcing "limited edition" and a price of a few hundred dollars. I was never happier with not having my name on a job but I feel bad for whoever parted with serious money for it.:faintthud:
 
Baer Charlton said:
HAH! See, I'm NOT the only one who uses the term ****.

Thank you Paul, thank you thank you thank you... now you can get in trouble with GG too... :thumbsup: :smileyshot22:
Click to expand...

Guilty here as well, (not of bad framing, the **** thing).

Bob
 
Last year when I came off my sabbatical, my boss' son (who had taken over my framing duties in my abcense) took in some glicees on rag paper. The client told him he wanted museum ghlass, 4-ply backing and archival hinges. Later, I went into the woorkroom and saw him about to use "acid-free" ATG to float the piece. I advised, warned, threatened him not to do it. He told me "It's in the back of the paper, nobody will see it and it won't fall down".
Long story short, the pieces came back yesterday with the outline of the "acid-free" ATG clearly delineated in orange. It cost the boss $400 to buy them and we have to put new ones in the frames once they're printed (and yes, we're paying for that too).
 
****???...

Monets I'd Like to Frame??

Monkies I'd Like to Feed??
:######: :######: :faintthud:
 
Why does it do this?:######:
 
Was ###### your third guess. If that's the case you may have got it right.

;)

Dave Makielski
 
j Paul said:
Or how about ParkWest Gallery (Cruise Ships) :eek:
Click to expand...

Yes.. yikes. One of my old coworkers used to work in their frameshop. Lemme just say, that some of those "signed" prints are not actually signed by the artist.

They want way too much for their prints too.

Btw... I've seen a few DILF :naughty: in my store
 
I recently opened up a needlework piece that had been in storage for several years. It was stapled to a 1/4"-thick piece of pressed paper board, quilt batting under it for padding, paper-matted ATG'd on top with no glass and a skinny little frame whose miters had come unglued. It was dirty and dusty, even though it was stored in plastic, the mat was warped and had turned brown and I was appalled.
.
.
.
.

It was a piece my mother worked and I framed in the early 80's, when I first started framing. That's what I was taught then. the board was actually sold by a framing supplier (Victor Moulding, I believe) as "needlework board", (the latest boon to needlework framing!) and we were taught then that all needlework should absolutely have no glass, as it needed to "breathe".

Do I know better now? Heck yes, but I was totally under the impression then (and taught so!) that it was all safe and sound. The framing industry said so! Or rather, my sales reps told me so, because they were the only contact I had with the framing industry, other than the occasional "Help!" call I made to Paul Frederick. PPFA wasn't as active back then, and especially not in my area.

There. I said it. I thought I was being a "good framer" then. What will we learn in the next 25 years?? What will turn on us, that we think is "safe and sound now??

But for those who know better now, and continue to do so....shame on them.

P.S....I googled ****....please tell me there's another acronym for that, besides what someone wants to do with someone's mother?
 
Do you think these might sell in your shop?



mothersdaycard1.jpg
 
You CAN buy T-shirts...

You CAN buy THOSE T-shirts at this site http://www.prankplace.com/ ...amongst other things.

And, with April Fool's just around the bend... always good for getting ideas....
 
"I re-framed a collection of McKnights and Niemans and they were all dry mounted.
The conservators look upon it as job security."

Oh my lord Wally, no, no, a thousand times no!!!!!!!

Rebecca
 
PUUULEEEEEze Val.... YOU had to google ****?

and you're actually a 6'9" black haired sloth throwback that drags her knuckles in front of her Pradas. Right.:icon11:
 
Okay, so I lead a sheltered life..... :shrug:
.
.
.
now.
.
.
.
Oh, I could tell you some stories sometime, but.....I don't wanna.
.
.
We'll just leave it at that.
 
Speaking of why, WHY is it 3 PM and the only customer we've had today is someone initiating an order on some pieces she brought in during the week? What the heck is wrong with this town? It's OK to shop, people, nobody will hurt you.

And I don't accept that good weather is an excuse. We're in freakin' CALIFORNIA. The weather is ALWAYS good.
 
Same here, Paul. One customer with one frame order today. All day. Where is everybody???

But hey, I'm getting a lot of work done!!
 
Val said:
Same here, Paul. One customer with one frame order today. All day. Where is everybody???

But hey, I'm getting a lot of work done!!
Click to expand...

me too, and actually, I just had another customer call in to change a quote to an order. Plus, a lady came in to pick up her pieces today and payed the balance due of $850...in cash.

But I really don't know what the deal is. I know there's baseball, and the basketball final four, but none of those are particularly compelling considering the demographics of the framing customer. I fear the economy has taken a turn for the worse.
 
Val said:
Where is everybody???
Click to expand...


I bet their out at the big M buying that exclusive glass at 50% off.

It's OK though, if we don't really do anything about it, nothing will change.




I'm not picking on you Val, it just kinda summed up how I feel right now.
 
Create a Post
Back
Top