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 ...

This post will deal with the humdrum and slightly annoying topic of uncollected, abandoned picture frames and akin picture framing goods. We will  begin by saying that an unglamorous part of our online business retail of ready-made picture frames and the factory manufacturing of custom picture frames is the non-collection and ensuing abandonment by Customers of orders and custom picture framing jobs that they ordered. Each year this consists of anything between 10 to 15 assorted online orders and custom picture frames totalling in value between $1,000 to $2,000, some of these orders are shown below. Individually, nearly nearly every order is worth less than $200.  This amount is important, as it will be seen a little later on as we continue reading.

"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 ...

"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 ...

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 ...   

Ever since the first picture frame was , probably around 2.500 years ago the image's artist and owner must have wrestled with the portrait vs landscape orientation compositional conundrum, should it be framed portrait or landscape? Which would look better? And of course, we are not referring to art photography where ‘portrait’ main mean portraiture by photography and ‘landscape” may mean nature or outdoor photography. In picture framing, portrait means when someone frames and hangs the picture vertically, or longways, whereas landscape means when someone one frames and hangs a picture horizontally, or sideways. To put it in another way, the portrait format means that an image is taller than it is wide and landscape means that it is wider than...

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 ..

This may seem a fairly simple task, but it’s actually a little complicated to pack and send picture frames and photo frames the right way. A first consideration is the size of the picture, photo frame or picture frame to be shipped. It will be fairly obvious that a small, 4”x6” photo frame will be a lot easier to pack and ship than, for instance, A1 framed poster. Another way of putting it is that, the bigger the picture frame, the more work you’ll have to do. A second one may well be, who will ship or courier the parcel for you. You will need to keep in mind that many Couriers will not accept parcels containing picture frames, photo frames ...