Framing biz changes and grows over time: take a look back at a quarter century of custom picture framing through the eyes of a veteran of the business - shop talk - a history of picture framing - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

I became a picture framer in the late 1970 when limited-edition prints were just becoming a more important part of the industry. Framers learned skills upon the job from co-workers and employer and through reading industry magazines for design ideas and of recent origin directions. The new news was "conservation," something that we were not really addressing yet

greatest in quantity of our framing was of certificates and family photographs. Our clients were price-conscious, and we presented to let them frame in our store to save fitting charges and gave them a discount upon their frames. Our frames were assembled upon a corner miter vise with hammer and nails. Mats were make an incision in to size with a big, table-mounted paper cutter like the little singles our teachers used in grade institute Our mat cutter was a Keeton Kutter the first of the commercially available straight line mat cutters

Our sample display of les than 100 corner samples included a scarcely any aluminum frames, a few frames, tiny and large, and a apportionment of one-inch wood finishes plus a not many gilt profiles. We had single rack of mat samples which included a hardly any shades of white and off-white in acid-free boards. We proffered the great new innovation of non-glare glass as a premium fruits and while some balked at the increased take away from eventually people began asking for this product

We ordered about one time a month and sent our trade to pick up the mat board, supplies and moulding from our local supplier. We picked up 100 sheets of mat at a time, keeping a stock of four sheets of each of the 75 colors that were available. Moulding was usually in 50-foot increments. We carried sole length moulding and cut all our possess wood and metal frames because cuts had net yet been proffered to us as an option. When distant moulding companies called on us, we ordered 2,000 feet at a time, 50 to 150 feet through profile, to get to the at liberty freight discounts. One of the great things about having materials in stock was there was little puzzle with lot variation. If the stock came in looking a bit different than the last time, we barely grumbl We just made a fresh corner sample and moved on

There were no toll-free numbers and no help lines, on the other hand my boss was a member of the McCormick cudgel This group was a framers' roundtable that was the predecessor of the Evergreen Picture Framer's Guild, to which I belong, and the protoplast for a group in California that eventually began the PPFA.

through the mid-1980s we were spending with equal reason much time with customers attempting to guide them to perfection that we decided to focus more upon custom framing. As custom frames became our major production the industry changed too. We were presented chop service, allowing us to display new lines of more expensive framing materials without the monetary risk that buying extent entailed. Customers started hearing about the fresh acid-free materials that were increasingly available in colors and began listening with more interest to the benefits and smooth asking for conservation framing upon their limited-edition prints.

When our clients began to travel more and were expos to more dramatic framing in the galleries of California, Hawaii and European museums, we set their price resistance diminished significantly. We began showing multiple frames, wider mats with fillets and level multiple fillets. By the time premium glass options like optically coated and ultraviolet filtering became available, our clients were ready for them.

Now ultraviolet filtering glass is a proceeds the consumers have heard of and supplication along with the conservation quality mats that have become our standard offering.

Helen Kane is a 25-year, award-winning veteran of the framing business. She got her start as a trainee at Anabel's Framing Gallery in Everett Wash., and go [i]or[/i] come backed after an absence of several years. She has sat upon the board of the PPFA and is publicly a member of her local chapter.

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