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The Trials of a Picture Framer

picture frame mouldingsThe trials of a picture framer.

“Do you have one just like that moulding but smaller?”

“Do you have that one but a shade lighter?”

“Do you have that in a warmer shade of gold?”

Sometimes, being a picture framer can be frustrating. You never have enough mouldings to cover the infinite breadth of consumer needs and desires these days.

There are usually two types of customer, one who trusts you as a framer, and trusts your judgements and will generally say “I don’t mind, just make it look nice”. And then there are those who are more, shall we say, picky. They tend to want to micromanage every aspect of the framing job right down to requesting a moulding that you have never seen before, to controlling the width of backing tape used! (OK, I exaggerate a wee bit!)

We are always driven to try to expand our collection to incorporate latest trends and fashion. This, as you can guess, can be challenging. Our collection of mouldings has evolved to try to cater for everyone, but there is always the risk that it just keeps getting augmented. We risk becoming a stockist of old, hard-to-find mouldings in 20 years’ time! We have some mouldings that have not been used in several years that we really wished we’d not bought, and some that fly off the shelves quicker than we can buy them in! An annoying one (annoying in colour as well as history) is the BRIGHT RED one. The supplier shipped it to us in error and, when informed about it, offered to sell it to us at a huge discount rather than pay for shipping it back. Of course, we chose to take it at discount, and it has subsequently resided untouched in the workshop ever since!

In reality, the difficulty lies in having too much choice. I have long thought that, if we were to start over again, we’d stock 4 mouldings: one black, one cream, one gold and one silver. Just think on how simple life would be!

Challenges for the framer don’t end there, we also have the different mount board colours and thicknesses to add into the mix too. It’s not much wonder that eventually, whether we like it or not, we are driven into becoming a framing stockist.

If anyone wants some narrow, bright red moulding, just drop us a note!