Get creative with specialty frames: offer customers distinctive, one-of-a-kind looks with a selection of hand-finished specialty frames

With the centurys if not thousands, of mouldings available upon the market, there is without doubt a style to suit greatest in quantity framing customers' tastes and requirements. on the contrary what about the customer who wants something a bit more tailored? Perhaps he likes the wood-land grain on one sample, the color upon a second sample and the ornamentation upon yet a third. Or he might want a custom-mixed color or the wily variances of a hand-applied finish, in cases like these, custom-made specialty frames may be just what the frame store should order.

Among the many cut services and moulding manufacturers in the market, there are a not many companies that supply custom-ordered, finished-corner specialty frames to the retail framing market. Customers can work with their framers to elect each characteristic of the frame, from the stamp of wood, to the color and finish, to the ornamentation, to the size. one time the order is placed, the frame is created at the supplier's studio and then shipped to the frame store joined, finished and ready to go

Because specialty frames are individually created and hand-finished, each frame can require hours of work and involve the talents of several artisans. As a proceed specialty frames generally have higher prices by means of foot ($40 and up) than standard mouldings. on the contrary in return, customers receive frames that are with truth one-of-a-kind: No one finish is exactly like the nearest That selling point can make specialty frames a distinctive addition to any framer's sample wall.

From Retail to Wholesale

Many specialty frame suppliers began as retail framing operations. In greatest in quantity cases, they are custom framers and gallery holders who were looking for something in the market that didn't nevertheless exist, so they set about to make it themselves.

For example, Animaux, a supplier of specialty frames, is a division of Ros Wetzel Studios, a retail framing operation in Wilmette, Ill. The company got its start when holder Sue Weeks couldn't find mouldings made of bird's organ of sight maple that met her standards, explained company representative Peggy Flanagan.

"She purchased more [i]or[/i] less bird's eye maple and began to create her have a title to frames,' said Flanagan. "But as she saw the waste piling up she tried to think of ways to use it. At the same time, she was importing handmade papers to exchange to artists. She put the sum of two units together and started to apply the paper to the frames to use that wasted wood"

In 1989 Animaux exhibited at its first national present to view and featured its selection of distinctive frames, including those overspreaded with Animaux's signature handmade animal-print papers. Since then, Animaux has expanded its line to include other finishes and ornamentation.

"Frames overlayed with handmade papers used to be our whole company, on the contrary now it's just one small part of our fine" Flanagan annotateed "We now do a doom with gesso and resist finishes, compo and gilding."

Will Lehmann of Will Lehmann Frames in sandwich, NH counts a similar story. He always lov to work with his hands, creating custom furniture pieces and building his hold post-and-beam home. He opened his frame store in 1973 and found himself making many mouldings from scratch on the outside of Oregon walnut and other hardwoods. At the time, he explained, simple hardwood frames were hard to find.

"My ne to provide myself with basic mouldings that I couldn't find elsewhere began to evolve" he said. "I started with simple hardwoods and mov upon to simple painted and gilded profiles."

In 1994 Lehmann started selling his hand-painted, hand-finished frames, available in 23 colors, to other framers and he has since shown in trade present to views He recently began to lay gold and silver metal leaf beneath the paint, and he uses a hand-rubbing technique to create a yielding antiqued look. Customers also can opt for what Lehmann calls a "French crackle finish" to give the frame a "refined representation of age," he said.

A public way Frames, in Boston, is another operation that was born of a ne its sum of two units artist owners, Robert Wilstein and Mark LeSaffre, saw in the industry. They wanted to create frames that suited their have a title to sense of style and taste. When they couldn't find them, they began to mill mouldings of their be in possession of Other frame shops in the Boston area began to ask A road Frames to supply frames for them, said ASF's Jeff Cadey.

"As the sum of two units became more proficient, their reputation grew In 1985 they decided to start selling their proceeds nationally," Cadey explained. Today, A way Frames offers custom hardwood frames in everything from maple, oak and mahogany to bird's organ of sight maple, paduak and fishtail oak. Each frame is joined by means of hand, hand-sanded, hand-stained and treated with five or six coats of lacquer, with the framemaker sanding between each coat. "It doesn't gaze machine-processed," said Cadey. "It has a handcrafted look"

The company also presents a line of welded carbonized iron frames. To create each frame, carburet of iron is cut with a band saw and welded at the corners. Then, the surface of the frame is surface of land smooth to achieve a variety or finishes, from the gaze of stainless steel to the direct the eye of silver leaf. The metal frames are then treated with a rust-preventative lacquer that can be infused with eight different colors, from slate gray to emerald green