“Do you supply custom window mats”?

"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 abodes  is  practice from time immemorial and one we first posited in our post when the first picture frame was made.  For  perhaps  two hundred years or more,  from the time of settlement in Australia in the late 18th century,  settlers, farmers,  colonists and all other classes of people hung up images and pictures on the wall of their homes, offices and workplaces. We can therefore note that picture framers have been making window mats for picture frames and photo frames for a long time.

But harking back to the topic, it must be observed that while some picture framers still continue to provide this service, a great many, such ourselves, have ceased and no longer do so.  Why is this so, might an inquisitive reader ask?

The reasons are manifold and complex.  Chief amongst these is the slow and protracted moribundity of the Australian picture framing industry. We have written of, and about this topic, before in several posts such as:  " Who or what killed all the picture framing shops? " and   "Made in Australia are you kidding?  " as well as " Let a thousand failures wilt".  These all expose and lament the chronic, profound and systemic failures of modern Australia society towards providing a trained, industrious, conscientious and diligent  workforce for the picture framing industry.

The sum of these addends of failure have led to the decimation the picture framing industry.  Pointedly, and at the time of writing,  the Australia Government's own 'Labour Market Insights'  on the  Occupation profile for Picture Framers lists a miniscule aggregate of 1,700 workers employed by the industry nationally, withe the Future Growth statistic being unavailable, presumably, if not obviously, due to the paucity industry participants.

Its parent occupation,  'Wood Machinists and Other Wood Trades Workers', announces its Future Growth as a negative  -11%.  Clearly and most evidently,  this is a field of industry in decline, and,  may we add,  in an irreversible decline which will eventually lead to its extinction, as our experience prognosticates.

The nation's shopping strips and centres are inexorably shedding picture framers' shopfronts and picture framing workshops who no longer manufacture frames, their parts and  accessories, such as window mats.  In many cases, these skilled artisans and small businesses are  being replaced by big department stores, of homewares chains which only sell completed, imported, picture frames and photo frames.

Now that we have concurred on the general demise of picture framers and the picture framing industry we can segue with the concomitant observation there are a lot less picture framers around than there used to be.

We can further surmise that the  main reason why so many shopping strip picture framers closed down is because the internet sent them broke.  And this is because since around 2000, most Customers have been able to search online for the cheapest picture frames which ( and almost invariably ) were never found at local picture framing stores.  And so they flocked to eBay, Amazon, Target or to any of the larger department stores, which frequently sold, and still do, photo frames and picture frames on "Sales" , " Specials" or, as "cheap as chips".

Local picture framers became established and flourished in all Australia states for generations because there was pretty  much nowhere else for Customers to go to.  Only some limited, black, and gold, basic photo frame sizes from Asia were imported, and the quality was often quite poor or erratic.

Local frameshops generally produced picture frames of far superior quality than those that could be bought at  department stores.  Picture framers could, and often did, pretty much charge what they liked and wanted. Those were the good times, the boom times, when Customers were actually grateful to find someone, anyone, who could and would frame things for them, and paid top dollar for this.

Picture framers would charge as much as $250 or more for an A2 size matted, custom poster frame.  For a custom window mat, they might charge $30 to $50 or more. Some Customers might grumble, but where else  could they go?  Only a picture framer with a bench mat cutter or computerized machine could provide the service or the goods.

Alas, how things have changed!  A perfectly suitable and workable A2 size matted frame can now be bought online for a mere $39.95 and an A2  a window mat costs a paltry $9.99.

This brings us back to the main topic of this post, if an A2 window mat is so cheap, which can't a picture framer also cut a custom window mat for around the same price?

The first obstacle to that proposition that comes to mind is that particular, cheap price, applies only to 1 only mat from a pack of 6 mats that costs $59.95, and not for a single, bespoke window mount.  Speaking for our establishment, we only cut mats in packs using a computerized mat cutting machine that costs around $30,000.  We could not and would not cut a mat by hand using a manual or bench cutter like we used to do years ago. It's too slow, inefficient, inaccurate and besides, it can give the mat cutter operator a repetitive wrist strain injury if done too often or for too long.

The reasons why this is no longer worth doing are several, but chief amongst these is that the labour costs involved in hiring, training and retaining skilled picture framing staff have increased out of proportion to what Customers can, want, or are prepared to pay.  For instance, a picture framer may cost his employer upwards to $60 an hour ( unseen and hidden costs included such as sick pay, holiday pay, parental leave, long-service leave, community service leave, annual leave, WorkCover Insurance,  award loadings, shift penalties, work allowances, etc, ).

It might take a picture framer up to half an hour, or more,  to consult with a Customer, select textures and colours, check sizes, write out the order, process payment,  locate, prepare and mark out a matboard sheet, set up the  cutting machine, cut the  mat, check-measure, wrap it and  hand it to the waiting Customer.  This labour might cost his or her employer, say, around $30 to $40.

It stands to reason that the employer will then need to charge the Customer a price commensurate with that business' or enterprise's cost-to-profit margin. And thus, the concomitant cost to a Customer could reasonably be around $45 to $80.  Unfortunately, there is now way in the world that the average Customer is going to pay that amount of money for what he or she sees basically as being sold just a piece of cardboard.

Yet another customer relations pitfall for small picture framing businesses is the problem of quoting for custom work, such as cutting a custom mat,  which may be perceived as exorbitant, or, heaven forbid,  as as picture framers trying to prey on, or to rip-off uninformed, disadvantaged or vulnerable Customers.  An average Customer may well resent or begrudge being charged $45 or $60 for a window mat when  they can buy a complete, A2 with A3 opening, matted poster frame for $39.95.

Because of the high retail cost involved in providing a custom mat cutting service, coupled with the prospect of dealing with unpleasant interactions such as abrupt rejections, or unfavourable Customer reactions, many picture framers, such as ourselves, adopted the practical business decision  of simply ceasing to offer the service.

A trend that we have noted in these last few years is for some Customers to buy large, ready-made frames sold on special, or discounted,  from discount or department stores and then shopping around for picture framers to cut custom mats to suit their smaller pictures.  While this may seem a good money-saving idea, in practice this seldom works, for a few reasons.

In the first place, it will be difficult to find a picture framer who may be willing to cut and supply only one or even two, custom mats. In the second place, mat cutting involves pretty precise sizing, to  nearest one or two millimitres, and it is quite likely that that a Customer-ordered mat could be inaccurately cut, being either too big or too small for the art, since accurate measurements can be difficult to obtain if one is untrained or unskilled in measuring for picture frame mounts.

In the third and last place, all paper art, especially  unmounted, larger posters and prints,  tend to cockle ( ripple and become wavy under the glass ) if not hinged correctly, and most Customers, will instead tape the art to the mat, thus exacerbating the problem and spoiling the whole appearance of the whole framed art.

And while we ceased supplying custom mats, we expanded our range of standard size, production window mats products   to cater for an ever increasing Customer base of artists, photographers  and other visual arts businesses. These Customers regularly use common, popular sizes such as our A2 to A3 window mats and A3 to A4 window mats in the four most popular colours, cool white, warm white, cream and black.