About twice a month for umpteen years, we have fielded many telephone calls often heralded by the now familiar question, "Do you sell to the public? ".  The short answer is yes, in fact, we always have, for many years. Retail only, never wholesale. Thus, we doth ponder, why the question?  Most likely, this all harks back to the "old" days when retailers and wholesalers were quite ran and operated as distinct and disparate entities. Shopkeepers kept their shops retailing directly to the public and wholesalers ran factories to only wholesale to their shopkeeper customers. In this traditional, but rapidly fading commercial or business model,  wholesalers, or distributors, were ...

So you want a gallery frame?  Once more it was a Customer's inquiry that germinated the composition of this post.  A city Customer rang us up and asked us for a price quotation for a "A0 size gallery frame".  We asked what she meant by "gallery  frame"  she replied that she didn't know but she thought we would know, hence this post.  Well, the short and sweet is this:  it's not a particular or specific size, colour, finish or framing style that makes a picture frame a gallery frame, but rather,  how and where  it's going to be used.  If it's going to be stood on its easel on a desk or table, or hung on a wall its own,  or just with another or  couple of other frames, then it's not really a gallery frame. 

"Can I put the poster in the frame while I'm here?" is a question regularly asked by some Customers who have just bought one or more of popular and inexpensive, ready-made poster frames.   Now, we understand why they may be asking this, sometimes they even tell us.   They are anxious to frame their art quickly and  want to hang it as soon as they get home.  They would like to frame it up at our store because it is full of spare poster frames as well as being large and spacious. Unfortunately, when this is asked, we always have to decline the request. The reason for this answer involves  the  evolving ...

"Do you supply or cut custom window mats"? We get asked this question, either by phone, email or in person, about once a week. Invariably, we have to respond in the negative, no, we don't.  But rather than leave it at that, while we're here, we thought we'd expand on it with a fuller reply. Whether or not a framing store elects to provide this service is worth exploring. Window mats are almost exclusively made to be used with picture frames which have a long history of being associated with human settlements and dwellings.  The manufacture and supply of picture frames, frameworks, icons, paintings and other kindred images with which adorn human ...

"Unshippable A0 picture frames? Why, what does that mean?". That was the question we were asked in disbelief and incredulity while fielding a telephone inquiry from a young mum in Northcote. She said she was confused as to why our website said that we could not  "post" a huge A0 black glass frame which she wanted.  She just had had a baby, she explained, and couldn't possibly come down  and pick up the frame, so she just wanted it shipped to her address.  We  did tell her that large glass frames cannot be shipped because most of the times these break or get damaged in transit, but she seemed to find it difficult to accept the explanation  and kept suggesting and insisting on various shipping methods that ...

We write this post "COVID killed picture framing, true or false dichotomy?" by way of a hopeful obituary to the dreaded COVID pandemic which, and though largely on the wane,   disrupted most nations around world and nearly everyone's life during the last couple of years or so.  With a focus on the picture framing industry, the epidemic appears to have had vastly different business results, depending on which sector, or specialization of the industry a business practised. This was certainly true in our case since our two main income streams were, and still are, the making of custom picture frames, and the ...

Just before Christmas, a lady Customer brought a medium-sized, black-and-white print which had been wrapped and stored away from sunlight since 1967.  She was excited at having discovered the print which was the last of a set of three her artist father had created, and now wanted it framed in a "safe" picture frame.  Alas, the set of 3 prints was somehow mislaid and became separated over the years, and only the first 2 prints had been framed. The third and last print was the one brought in to us for farming and the Customer wanted us match the framing of the other two.  As  she ...   

Some weeks ago a senior Customer came to our factory wanting us to make some custom size glass clip frames.  The desired, odd-size clip frames were to match other existing ones on her family wall.  There had been new additions to her clan, she said, and she wanted the wall photos decor to match. She volunteered that she was a pensioner and could not afford to pay much.  Also, she helpfully added, she knew what the prices of the clip frames should be.  Since the special size clip frames that she wanted were smaller than the A3 clip frames she saw on our display for $6.65, hers should ...

Stretcher frames and strainer frames are often used by artists, painters and embroiders.  These frames are the wooden framework which hold and support the canvases artists paint or create.  Embroiders sometimes also use these frames for their embroideries since these  can provide the durable tensions needed for sewing and pinning.  That said,  the greatest difference in Strainer Frames Versus Stretcher Frames is the cost.   You can buy online a 50x75 cms (20”x30”)  stretched, primed ready-to-paint, canvas stapled to a strainer ..