One of our favorite sayings is “If it isn’t moving, we can frame it.” (We were tested once while framing huge spider. IT MOVED! The framer had extensive therapy and is doing fine now. Thank you.) When you work with clients on framing projects, you often have a window into their lives and it can be a rather intimate experience. Obviously, I don’t mean intimate in THAT sense, although we have on occasions framed nude photos of people.
People frame things that have important meaning to them and we are honored to be a part of that. We frame photos, announcements, certificates, tickets, children’s drawings, invitations, portraits, badges, ribbons, diplomas, war medals, paintings, prints and just about anything you can imagine (and many things you can’t).
We are moved beyond words when people tell us about a loved one they have lost and are framing their portrait or a lock of their hair. We love doing shadowboxes where we can tell a story with treasured mementoes. We’ve had people cry when we’ve unveiled the finished product. It is great fun framing needlepoint for people who have worked very hard on a project and are thrilled to see their efforts beautifully showcased. This is what one expects when you work in framing and it’s another reason we love what we do.
A Few Favorite Stories…
In the 22+ years Lenny and myself (Arlene) have owned The Art Shop, we have witnessed the unexpected as well. Here are a few favorite stories from The Art Shop.
- A woman came in with a fairly sizeable rock to frame. We showed her a suede mat with a beautiful shadowbox frame and she loved it. While we were writing up the order, we asked her about the significance of the rock. We figured it must have some special meaning to her since she was spending a sizeable sum to frame it. “Nah,” she said. “I just found it in the back yard.”
- A woman came in with a small wooden frame and a slightly larger print. She asked if we could stretch the frame to fit the print. Our framer said, “Ma’am. We’re good, but not THAT good!”
- A man came in and said he had a large framed print with broken glass in his car and asked if someone could help him bring it in. I followed him out and was horrified to find an almost life-sized naked portrait of a woman. Notice I didn’t say “nude” in the classic sense and the word “portrait” gives it more class than it deserved. I took one end and helped him back into the gallery, gave him a price for the replaced glass and hoped my face wasn’t bright red.
- While we’re talking nudity: We had a very good customer that did quite a bit of framing with us. His name was Jim and he reminded all of us of “Reverend Jim” in the old TV series, TAXI, which is to say he was rather kooky. One day, Lenny went to deliver the framing to his house and he showed up at the door completely nude. Lenny and the framer who framed the spider went to therapy together.
Framing is great fun and we love working with clients to come up with a beautiful way to showcase their treasures. We often learn from our clients and recently, we heard a great line from an artist who came in to frame one of her portraits. She said, “Finding a great frame is like putting a diamond in the perfect setting.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.