“May you live in interesting times” is a Confucian curse – or blessing, depending on which way you look at it. 2016 was, most certainly, an interesting year, not least in the framing studio.
With the team now augmented by the happy additions of Laura and Piers, we have added further skills to those already on offer – for example, Laura’s craft genius manifested in clever little beanbags to hold down problematically curly pictures to perfection,
and Piers providing a deft hand with wood and paint in the carpentry studio, among other things.
Commissions for a variety of projects kept us on our creative toes throughout the year, with a variety of shapes and sizes of frames requested by some of our customers, who wanted something a little different, but couldn’t find anyone to fulfil their order, such as this hexagonal frame, which was requested by a customer in Birmingham:
Unusual shapes in mirrors were also requested, and orders were filled using the framing and carpentry expertise available here: an angle-topped mirror, and another unusual one in the form of this octagon.
We were delighted to be able to oblige where other framing companies just didn’t have the capability.
Further on the theme of mirrors, we also completed several orders for fairground mirrors, something of a speciality of ours, and again, something we can do for customers in any part of the country.
Esoteric collections are always a pleasure to frame, and 2016 provided some interesting ones, including much militaria, one of which involved framing a ‘shabraque’, which was a word we hadn’t come across before (which we always like around here) and proved to be a type of regimental saddlecloth.
Clothing was a recurrent theme, with football and rugby shirts a-plenty, and also this pair of rugby shorts, donated by Joe Marler to a delighted namesake schoolboy, seen here proudly holding his sporting trophy:
Waistcoats; woggles; flags; cigarette cards; big orders (60 items for a 50s themed restaurant at Thorpe Park) and little ones (a rusty nail), we have enjoyed framing them all.
We worked some magic with Minalima‘s exhibitions, including Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them,
and can even brag a Royal connection: we were, indeed, Her Majesty’s humble and obedient picture framers with these cunningly housed royal missives.
Happy New Year! Tilly