The Framers Forum

Hi guys and gals....

I'd just like to stop by the introductions sections and say hello from your newest recruit.

My name's Tom, and I've been a keen DIYer and woodworker for almost 10 years and amateur photographer for about the past 4 years. I'm 27 years old/young and recently have found (the past year or so) that I've been really enjoying making frames and framing artwork and photographs.

I specifically enjoy making hardwood frames from scratch - hand picking the rough sawn boards, making the frame mouldings and then mounting the artwork or photographs myself. I'm by far no means an expert or "qualified" in any of these things.... but I do thoroughly enjoy it .

I've made lots of wooden gifts and nick nacks over the years, but found real joy in creating frames for people to hang their photographs and artwork at home. If I'm not making a frame or mounting artwork for a colleague - I'm a Mechanical Engineer by trade, by the way - I'm making one for friends or family or for the Mrs. I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but it seems like I make more photo frames for the Mrs. than I do anyone else... She does do a lot of digital artwork though... so I guess that's alright (even if it is at a cost to myself!?)

If I'm not doing any of those things, you'd probably find me pottering around the garage in my workshop, pottering around the veg garden or playing with my 9 month old son and his big sister.

Anyway... I hope to get to chat to you all very soon. Please prepare yourself for loads of not stupid questions - because in my eyes, there are no stupid questions when you're learning. I find that if you don't ask when you don't know, specifically at the very beginning of a journey, you will miss the underpinning knowledge to lots of things that will help you learn faster later on - one of my first true lessons when I started my apprenticeship over 10 years ago.

Cheers,
Tom

Hi Tom and welcome to the forum,

I hope you will enjoy being part of our happy little gang. We are very friendly lot and always happy to welcome new members. Please feel free to ask questions and generally join in with anything happening here that takes your fancy. I started off as mainly a framer, but I have gradually diversified into making a few other things as well. I'm not sure that this was much of a conscious decision to diversify, at first I was asked to repair , or make a few other things and it sort of grew from there.

I now make all manner of bits and pieces, mostly because I've become known for doing some of this stuff and it keeps me occupied. I had a stroke a couple of years ago and I am over state retirement age, but I still need things to do, so here I am still at it. I guess you would say that picture framing and making bits and pieces keeps me sane and also helps me maintain my mobility. I'm a lot less mobile and agile than I was before the stroke and if I don't keep busy, my body gets worse.

Because I now take longer do do things, I have taken to finding more efficient ways of working and now do certain tasks using power tools to help overcome my manual difficulties. I'm still not quite as fast as I was previously, but I'm still getting by not to badly. Nice to have you join us and I hope that you will enjoy being part of the gang.

Mark.

Welcome Tom.

Hi Mark/Prospero.

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Mark, sorry to hear about your stroke. It sounds like you have made the best out of an awful event.

I know how this feels, I had to have Brain surgery at the end of 2018 and this has left me with certain limitations, but its the workarounds that we find that enable us to keep going and not give up that are the important things worth remembering.

Cheers,
Tom

Hi Tom,
Welcome to Mark's Forum, I mean The Framers Forum!!
We're all here to share and learn.
Good luck.
Justin.

Hello Tom,

I'm the son of an engineer. They don't ask stupid questions, just good ones.

I'll leave it to the grownups to answer the hard wood questions (whilst I covet their hardware).

Have fun here.

Richard