It occurs to me that given my past, I should have written more than one blog entry between “Welcome to 2017!” and today, early March 2019. This is especially true given that my ‘previous life’ was all about writing blogs and keeping my customers informed. My only excuse is that as much as I have wanted to write (I do love the writing) and keep you informed, some of the delays in this post is that I am not quite sure who my customer is. (Gasps of shock, I hear, from all those in business who say it’s important to know exactly who your customer is)
So maybe more precisely should be to say, who are you, my reader?
Let me tell you why.
I have such a lovely mix and variety of customers and their requests are just as varied. For example, since January these have been a few of my customers…(you may recognize yourself described here or realise that you could easily be listed here)
On the teaching side, I have taught the following …
- a client who comes once a year for a workshop. Each year she contacts me with a new project or idea and we spend the day working on that new skill. This year we donned aprons and I showed her how to paint and finish the frames she made to her specification. I’m looking forward to next year!
- a client who has done the basics and wanted to revisit them, with a view to becoming a framer. Actually, there have been a few of these over the years and a few since the start of the year. One who is tentatively exploring the idea of starting framing as a business, one who is methodically increasing her skill set, and one who bought the professional tools, jumped in at the deep end and who spent a few days with me, getting to know the tools. I’m looking forward to seeing him back to learn more.
- a client who has completed quite a few framing workshops and who, over the years, has wanted to add very specific skills to his repertoire. This year he booked two consecutive days and we worked on stretching canvases, lacing fabrics, and making a box frame.
- two friends, who have been friends forever, but rarely see each other. For them, a one-day framing workshop is a lovely opportunity to spend a day together, have fun, learn something new and take home something they have made from scratch.
- a mother and son duo who wanted to learn to frame silk scarves – I think we’re all still learning that one. Silk is not easy to work with and silk scarves can be a challenge.
- a morning workshop, which was a gift for a friend who has a special achievement. What a wonderful encouragement from a friend. As if she said, “Go and frame your medal, photograph, or certificate – be proud of your achievement and cherish that memory”.
- an introduction to framing workshop as a surprise gift for a husband to spend the day learning something new.
When it comes to framing, the list of items that framers face is always long. You can look at any framing website and they’ll tell you the list of items and memorabilia that they are happy to frame. It really is interesting, and worth noting that aside from the photographs and paintings that many of us frame, we also frame quite a few pieces that are unusual. Since January, items that I have framed include the following:
- a very old, faded, and slightly damaged but dearly loved poster, which has traveled the world, but needed the glass replacing and a little TLC on the old frame to revive it
- an extra-large frame for the mirror and, in contrast, the very small frame, for a World War II medallion
- a cross stitch and a piece of fabric art that needed to be float framed
- a fire screen which is home to a very old needlepoint and which needed glass replacing
- a shopping bag from a market
- replacing the frame when the original frame didn’t quite work for them
- and there were canvases that needed stretching and paintings that needed framing…
The large one…Not often I can stand inside the frame! 
and small…
I think I mentioned in my last post back in 2017, that I love my job. I still do.
Are you my customer? I hope so. I’m not committing to writing another blog any time soon, but if I do, I plan to write about some of the projects I work on and if you’re learning to frame, maybe the articles will be of help. If you’re not learning to frame, maybe there is that piece in the attic you’ve been meaning to get framed and never got around to. Just like my customer who found an old water colour when she was sorting out things and it turned out to be quite valuable. We have framed it with care.