December 2017
After our busiest December ever we have now closed for our Christmas and New Year break. We would like to thank each and every customer who has chosen us to do their framing during 2017. We thank you very much for your custom. We are also very grateful for all the customers who recommend us to their friends and family, it is very much appreciated.
2017 has been another record breaking year for us. We’ve managed a trip to the biggest framing event in the world, held in Las Vegas in January. We enjoyed a whole wealth of education classes as part of the Continuing Professional Development of our framing qualifications. We celebrated 11 years of The Framing Lot in June this year and our son Matthew who had been working alongside us since September 2015 moved on to pastures new and his new career. Our thanks to everyone who has popped in to ask how he is doing and to wish him well. In October we finally managed to make the changes to the workshop that we’d had planned for over a year. The customer area is 99% finished and we will be doing more fitting out within the workshop area during our Christmas break and into January. The changes will be improving the workflow of handfinished frames and allow Alec more creative space for his bespoke finishes.
We have worked on some amazing projects during 2017 and already have some very interesting ones in the pipeline for 2018. Our customers continue to challenge us to find creative solutions to display their precious items – whether it is traditional artwork or more unusual 3D memorabilia items. We’ve both had articles published in our trade magazine Art & Framing Today produced by our trade body, The Fine Art Trade Guild. These have been on a variety of subjects including our trip to Las Vegas, our work with artists and showcasing a few framing projects we have worked on. Jo has also continued in her role as Members’ Warden of The Fine Art Trade Guild which sees her in a central role within the industry working on the future of the art and framing industry in the UK and the standards and qualifications for framers in the UK and members around the world.
So 2017 has been a very busy year. We are looking forward to our break and then to returning in January ready to start 2018 and see just what the year brings. We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.
November 2017
Well what an end to October that was. Two frantic weeks of moving things around, building walls, laying a new floor and building a new design desk before opening the doors again on 1st November to welcome customers in with our new look. The start of November will be us getting back to normal, after a full spring clean to clear away the building dust. We are really pleased with how the customer area now looks and will be working after hours, alongside our other framing work, to complete the workshop part of the refit. The good news is the really dusty part is finished and we can keep the artwork and refit work separate with our new format. There are some changes to what is now on display – we have a 3 for 2 offer on all our greetings cards and we have changed our stock frame selection to showcase some of Alec’s handfinish frames as well as a more select offering of stock frames in some very lovely mouldings. We no longer sell the gallery giftware items – what was left when we cleared the gallery in October has been donated to the Dawlish Branch of the Royal British Legion to help with Branch fundraising. Don’t forget we have our RBL Poppy Box in the gallery for the next week or so if you need to pick up a poppy. You can drop any old £5 notes or £1 coins into the collecting tin – they are happy to take them. We do still have cards and prints for sale and will be putting framing examples on the walls to display things that we do. Some of these will be for sale but some; like the Tower Poppy and Jo’s cross stitches; are just for display purposes. So lots of changes but still the same warm welcome.
October 2017
Our refurbishment is underway at last – hooray! We had a busy start to October with frames heading to a variety of exhibitions and some also going to exhibitions abroad. The last few orders we completed are off to the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea which is on this month. And now we are dismantling the customer area and gallery part of the workshop before we put it all back together again in a different format. At the moment it is looking pretty messy so it is just as well our shutters are down and we are closed to customers while the refit is going on. Hopefully by the end of the month we will be looking clean and tidy and ready for opening again on 1st November. We look forward to seeing you then to show off all our hard work.
September 2017
Well we blinked, and we seem to have missed giving an update in August! What a busy month it proved to be. Preparations for Devon Open Studios – which is now on until the 24 September, and you can pick up your FREE guide in store – and other art shows around the region, as well as the usual mix of bespoke orders. We’ve framed a whole variety of things over the summer including some vintage swimming costumes so that they appear to float in their frames between two pieces of glass. That was quite a challenge!
This month saw Alec complete his first large order for frames featuring gilded sections. The idea was to create a soft gold finish so 12ct gold leaf was used and combined with a painted finish created specifically for this order. The paintings are heading to London for an exhibition and this starts a new phase in the type of handfinished frames Alec is now able to offer. As this part of the business has expanded so we have had another look at the layout of the workshop. In October we will be shutting the workshop for framing orders for 2 weeks as we undertake the 3rd large refurbishment since we started the business 11 years ago. We will be creating a new customer design area, putting down new flooring, moving the moulding samples and increasing the number on show. We will also be creating a new workroom for Alec where he will be preparing frames ready for handfinishing. His current painting room will become a dedicated “dust free” painting/finishing room allowing him more space to work. We look forward to showing off our finished workshop when we reopen for the start of November. We will be working as normal during September and the start of October though up until Saturday 14th October – and the workshop will reopen fully on Wednesday 1st November. Until then we are framing as usual and keeping ourselves busy planning all the changes for next month.
July 2017
We’ve had a really busy start to the month getting a record number of jobs through the workshop over the past few weeks prior to our Summer Break. The workshop will be closed from Saturday 8th July through to Monday 24th July inclusive and we reopen on Tuesday 25th July at 9am.
And we are now ack at work! After a lovely break in Normandy the workshop is back open, normal working hours are in place and we are here through the rest of the summer.
June 2017
What a busy time it has been – and I’ve just realised I hadn’t updated our News since March! It has also meant that the plans to make changes in the gallery area are only just starting to happen. There will be a bit of a shift around over the coming weeks but we hope to keep disruption to a minimum. In May we attended the Fine Art Trade Guild Awards Weekend in Stratford Upon Avon. It was a wonderful weekend with lots of discussions with other art and framing industry professionals. The end of May then saw Matthew heading off to his new career and we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who popped in to wish him well. June is looking like another busy month of framing – we have some lovely new moulding chevron samples in the latest styles and our new chevron boards will allow us more space to show these off. We are also now holding stock of UV 99 AR glass, rather than just ordering it in when needed, so all the main glass options we use are now available from stock. UV 99 AR glass was launched last year – it offers 99% UV protection, superb Anti Reflection properties with total clarity and is easy to clean. Examples of the different glass types are on display by the chevron boards so you can see for yourself the difference it can make on your artwork. And the last thing to mention is that The Framing Lot will be celebrating its 11th birthday on the 26th June – what an amazing 11 years it has been. Our thanks to everyone who has chosen us for their framing since we opened the doors in 2006.
March 2017
It is almost Spring like outside at the moment, with the sun shining down and we are racing ahead with preparations for a variety of artist exhibitions in the coming weeks and months. From events here in Devon, to pieces heading off to Singapore and Hong Kong, there is plenty of amazing art passing through the workshop at the moment. As soon as we can catch our breath we will be starting the changes to the gallery area. Our plan is to move our moulding chevron displays and design desks over to the opposite side of the gallery – this will increase the display space and allow us to create a much bigger design desk area. We will also be creating a new workroom for Alec as his handfinished frames have outgrown the room he currently uses. By creating this extra room he can improve the workflow between the two areas with some in preparation stage and other frames further on in the finishing process. We are hoping to start the work in April and have it finished by May. It also allows us to make the most of still having Matthew working here with us. He has now been accepted into the military and will be leaving us towards the end of May. We have been very spoilt having him around for the last year or so!
February 2017
We are back from the West Coast Art and Framing Expo Las Vegas full of inspiration and new ideas. We each took 10 classes on a variety of subjects – from preservation innovations and techniques, frame finishing and fabric wrapping of mounts and frames and many more. This was all part of our Continuing Professional Development that we undertake as part of our Guild Certified Framer qualifications. While we were in the USA we also became members of the Professional Picture Framers Association. This sits alongside our current membership of the Fine Art Trade Guild – the body that sets standards and qualifications for the framing industry in the UK. The PPFA is the US based standards and qualifications trade body and so having membership of both organisations means we have full access to all their information and techniques to continue to improve the service we offer our customers. We are now hard at work catching up with orders and preparing for a busy Spring art show season.
January 2017
Well it has been a very strange month for us – back to work on the 3rd and then off again after the 18th as we are off to attend the West Coast Art and Framing Expo in Las Vegas. And it really isn’t another sneaky holiday! We have both signed up to 10 classes each on various framing topics – as there is always something new to learn and new techniques to discover. You can be sure that we will come back full of inspiration and new ideas. We are back open on the 1st February with our normal hours and look forward to seeing everyone then.