When it comes  to artists' regrets, mistakes and failures of times pas, it should come as no surprise to our readers that many of our picture framers are, were or have been artists and fine arts practitioners.  Artists create, and once art is created, it would be anathema to secret it out of sight.  Indeed, it must be shown, displayed and exhibited. Throughout history much art has been and still produced on canvas and paper.  And art on paper is largely pencil, crayon, watercolour, gouache, charcoal or  other mixed media on paper.  As such is expedient to put this art in picture frames, in fact, what could be, more natural?  But just “ to frame” art, is that enough?  Nay, we say, if art is to be framed it must be done well, or not at all. Alas we are fallible human beings and we do not always do ...

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...

Not quite once upon a time, but some moons past, in a faraway land of opportunity, lived a crafty lady called Annie.  She cleverly crafted fairy and feathery, wondrous earrings which nobody else made.  Then one fine day she thought she should venture on the internet and thus duly signed up with Etsy.  Folks from near and yonder places found her online and happily purchased her hand-crafted wares.  She enjoyed what she was doing, and after some time, even started to earn a modest living.  Alas, one dark day, Etsy abruptly began promoting and prioritizing only the sellers who gave free shipping.  Annie wasn’t one of them, because she just couldn’t ...

To many of our Staff,  Customers and people we know,  grew  up in the 1970’s, 1980s’ or even earlier , the statement "MDF wood frames help reduce global warming" could seem nonsensical. Back then plastic was fantastic, it was so cheap and convenient, we couldn’t make, buy or use enough of  the staff.  It was literally and still largely is, ubiquitous, and the picture framing industry was no different from the others.  While the custom picture framers never bought much, if any, of the plastic stuff,  just about everyone else did.   PVC ( plastic ) mouldings were, and still are,  a major part  of the mass-produced photo frames and picture frames.  Just about every picture frames wholesaler, discount chain, department store, chemist chain and discount ...

So, you’re an artist. You draw, sketch or paint, mostly on paper.  You’re starting to sell your work and getting a name for yourself.  Your sales are increasing, but you still don’t sell most of your art, so you store it.  Often you need to travel, so you leave your work, in your studio, unattended, or course, because, well , it’s not like a pet that can wander off at night, right?  But to safely store your work require some forethought and planning and chances are that you’ve been so busy that you haven’t given this topic much thought. This is where this post  “The Artists, Their Art , Their Studios & The Environment” comes in, giving you a reminder list with some ...