A couple questions

[dandydon07]

Hi all,
Looking for some help and information please.
Firstly, I have a customer who is wanting the same frame as he already has. Unfortunately he bought the picture already framed and I can’t find this one in any of my Catalogues.
The frame is wooden and has an light olive green look to it with the grain of the wood showing through. It’s about 15mm width with roughly 25mm rebate.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

My second question is regarding Covid-19.
I am looking to put a statement out via email and social media saying that we are opening soon (we are in Scotland so still not allowed to open the shop yet but want to be ready when we get the go ahead) and include the new shop rules with 1 or 2 customers in the shop at a time or follow the taped lines on the floor etc etc.
If anyone has any statements that they have put out, and don’t mind sharing, I’d be most grateful to see what you have. My email is info@aberdeenframing.com
Thanks in advance,
Ian

[StevenG]

I'm not an expert in this but I think that's a hand finished frame - I'm sure some of the people who know what they're talking about will advise in more detail

On the Covid-19 statement - it's actually something I'd be interested in myself.

So there you go, I've replied to your question and not answered a single thing. Do you think I should work in politics?

[vintage frames]

From looking at your photographs, I'm guessing that the frame is an oak section, as you can get from R&H, and it's been stained with Walnut coloured stain, and maybe a little Oak added. You would be best try mixing both to get a match.

[Not your average framer]

We are not yet allowed to open our shops for business in England either, this means that we are not permitted to have our shops open to the general public at all, at this time. It does not mean we cannot trade and do business, but there still are precautions that place legal requirements upon what is acceptable and what, is not.

Businesses are permitted to receive deliveries and for items to be collected, but the rules are necessarily restrictive and it is the heath and safety part of your local authorities heath and hygene department for will tell you what is o.k. and what it not. However, it is pretty much definite that you won't be allowed to meet your customers inside your shop, you home, or probably even your garage, but there are some arrangements that the authorities can allow, such as on a small table under a gazebo in you back garden by prior appointment and observing the required 2 metre separation.

If you can get to speak to the right people at your local authority, the can authorize limited arrangements like this and there will almost certainly be restrictions on what is permitted and what is not permitted. It's bit like walking on egg shells, but they are accountable for what they will allow. If you can undertake framing without needing a consultation, then it simply a matter of you accepting a pre-arranged delivery and then a pre-arranged collection and maintaining the legally required distancing.

Some delivery companies are operating to a required distance of a least 3 metres. Their way of delivering is that the put it down outside your premising, then retire at least 3 metres to permit you to collect your delivery and take it into your premises. I'm guessing that you would probably operate on the same basis.

I am working towards operating on the delivery and collection basis and maintaining a safe distance of 3 meters and in addition to this I will be operating with my side access door between my self and the customer. I will have the side door slightly open, but the door would be between us and I would be peering around the edge of the door with a full face clear visor and a breathing mask behind this.

There is a small wooden occasional table in my garden, which could be bought outside so that there is something to place the item on and I could place a pack of anti bacterial wipes there as well, so that the customer can sterilize their hands afterwards. I'm fairly sure that this would meet with the current requirements for delivery and collection.

I think that it is a reasonable expectation that we will still be required to have certain measure still required within our business premises, even after the lock down has been lifted. I am a diabetic, so I won't be taking any chances with my own health anyway. Just because the govenment has lifted the lock down, does not mean that some precautions are not a good idea.

[Justintime]

It looks like Rose and Hollis A41 Oak, barewood with a Jacobean Oak spirit stain by Chestnut.

[dandydon07]

Thanks Mark,
How do you tell your customers what choices of frames they can choose from when they aren’t allowed in your shop?
I get many emails and messages asking if I’m open but i am finding it difficult to explain that as they aren’t allowed in the shop then there is limited options.
Are you just offering a black frame, silver frame, gold frame, white frame and oak/wooden frame and thats it or how are you putting this across to your customers?
I look forward to hearing yours and other members opinions.
Thanks again,
Ian

[cleaver]

Love this thread title; it puts me in mind of Columbo.....any follow-up thread could be titled 'just one more thing'.

[Not your average framer]

Everyone else is in the same boat at this current time. You have to ask them some question and do your best based upon what they are saying. Some are talking about doing the consultation with customers over Zoom, which I don't think is going to be much good. The quality of the video on Zoom is not especially great and it's unlikely that your customers will have perfect colour, brightness and contrast rendition on a bog standard uncalibrated monitor.

I would not count on your competition doing things much better and considering most peoples concerns about business levels going forward, after the lock down, I don't expect too many framing businesses quing up to spend large amounts of money on the technology to do offer anything much better over the internet, as they don't know how they are going to see any return at all on the investment.

It's beginning to look like normal shops will be allowed to re-open, in the not too distant future and we are going to be making our shops compatible with whatever is going to be required and we will need to spend money to do that. So spending money of the technology to consult over the internet, will be not required by then, but spending money on making our shops covid safe will be the important issue by then.

[Justintime]

Im sorry Mark, but I have to share some optimism.
I completely disagree with you about Zoom, but I guess it depends upon the quality of your webcam and your mobile phone. Of course colours aren't always rendered perfectly,but we should be able to instill some confidence in customers minds,that we do actually know what we are doing...
I have had a number of pieces dropped off and quarantined for 72 hours.
I then put two to three designs together, discuss them over zoom and then take payment over the phone. Its worked very well so far. Customers have a choice, they trust my design judgement and are thrilled that it's possible to work it out this way.I have only had good feedback from the process so far.
It's not all doom and gloom, but we will have to work differently and think on our feet.

[Not your average framer]

Thay's good! Maybe the rest of us could learn a lot from you. My laptop's camera does not do me any favours, it's a Sony Visio, I'm not completely sure about it's age, but it's got windows 7. I'm not an expert on these things, but I had assumed that it was a high spec laptop. Our church has virtual meetings on zoom and we can all see each other, but a lot of us are quite don't have great video.

If you feel that it's something you would like to do a thread on how to consult with customers and get decent results would be something good, but only if you fancy the idea. Are you using Zoom in conjuction with any other software like Visualisation? Also do you have a ceiling mounted camera, or anything like that? I've only ever used Zoom since our church started doing the virtual meetings following the lock down and I'm still getting up to speed with it.

[GeoSpectrum]

The frame looks like waxed ash to me. Possibly Lion L001? Although that is 20mm wide.

[theframer]

I would say its a ash moulding with a possible chestnut brand mid oak stain

Dave

[Not your average framer]

If it is as said 15mm width, with a 25mm deep rebate, the Rose and Hollis SW3850 (Ash) could be a possible match. Suggesting what colour would be the actual colour of the stain, or wax is not really something I would like to guess at. StevenG has already suggested that it might be hand finished and if it is indeed the Rose and Hollis bare Ash moulding, then that would make good sense too.

It could be stain with a tinted wax, as Alan has already suggested and that could be an inspired answer, but it's hard to be sure. However, if it is a wax finish, that would be a popular way of also filled any slight gaps in the corner mitre joins and the same time as colouring the wood, so that could make some sense too.

[fusionframer]

Colour wise, a possible solution, and cheaper than trying different stains and waxes unless you have them already is to buy van dyke crystals. You can play around to mix right colour then use liberon neutral wax to finish.

https://www.ffx.co.uk/tools/product/Lib ... stals-250g

Cheap as well and these will last ages

Nick

[Not your average framer]

II also use Van Dyke crystals and few paint pigments to mix my own wood stains. It the old fashioned way of doing things, there are lots of recipes for making your own wood stains in a book called "The complete manual of wood finishing" by Frederick Oughton. If you are going to get a copy of this book, the original version only had one author. The later version has two authors and somebody else has largely re-written quite a bit of it. I have the original version of the book and cannot comment on what the later version is like, because I've not seen it.

I don't use the old traditional pigments apart from the Van Dyke crystals, because I've already got some transparent pigment based acrylic paints which for me, do just as well and I stock these anyway, which makes life much easier. I also use some watered down match pots of Craig andRose chalky emulsion in the mix, when I staining pine and this helps me to reduce the unnaturally large contrast in the grain of the wood, when you stain pine. I don't like normal commercial wood stains when staining pine, as I think the the result tends to emphasize the fact that pine looks too cheap.

Some light coloured slightly opaque pigment , such as the chalky emulsion considerably softens the stronger and less attractive looking grain that you see in pine. I even can makes pine look like Parana pine using this technique by adjusting the mix a bit. It is also quite easy to produce an effective imitation of Pickle pine by varying the same technique accordingly, with a very small amount of grey acrylic paint added to the mix, but not too much, so that the effect remains suitably subtile.

Customers are not always all that keen if you mention the name "Pickle pine", but if you just let them look at a sample and don't mention the name it is quite a popular finish on pine mouldings. Pine mouldings require a little bit of practice to make them look their best, but it's well worth the effect, because there are some very good deals to be had on so many different bare wood pine mouldings. I use certain pine mouldings as stacked moulding combinations, because I can make up some really large impressive profiles this way, without too much cost for the mouldings needed to do this.