Then I read Kev's post and saw, in parts, myself described again - sure my shop is not just framing - but it's (pretty much) all I do in it - and I've put the hours in similar - maybe more/maybe less and maybe if less then more stressful, or not - who cares? Not the wallet dipper that's for sure - can't judge the quality of a business by time Roboframer (John)
No, absolutely I was not meaning your business. Its obvious what effort has gone into it. And I'd hazard a guess that the framing side of it would stand up as a good viable business in its own right.
Perhaps I have kept my own "credentials" regarding "conservation" under my hat. When we started in business we were very much specialists in antique and veteran prints, valuable posters, ephemera and antique maps. It was a matter of necessity to learn as much as possible (from curators, restorers and conservators - there was no internet then) about the correct materials and techniques. I was probably framing, as routine, to "conservation standards" on a daily basis long before many people started in this business. Although I worked on rufty-tufty oil rigs, i had more than a pssing interest in historical printing techniques, which covered papers in all their forms, inks, preservation and conservation. I had to learn this stuff the hard way, the old school way. Now its apiece of cake, I can happily forget everything i ever knew, and refresh myself on google if required. This pre-dated my framing career, in fact it was what led me into framing in a round about way.
So I'm not one of those who started framing, then heard about conservation later. I have, and I DO frame to museum standard, for museums, as well as a lot of other types of framing. In fact we have framed to hang in the Tate, Royal Acedamy, etc.
Its not the number of hours, its the number of frames.
If someone admits they only get four "cheap crap prints" a year, then I'll happily admit on a saturday morning before the kettle has boiled we will have had four "cheap crap prints" over the counter, along with a load of other "not so crap" items to frame. I've proably framed thousands of "cheap crap" prints (not my words). We used to turn out around 15,000 frames a year, a lot of which went to the US and Germany where framing standards are high. I used to train young people for a government sponsored agency, some of whomare still in the framing industry today.
What may surprise people is that we started framing
entirely based on USA framing methods, in which consideration to materials and conservation had a far higher priority than the UK at the time, and one lad I trained went off to run a framers on nantuckett island at the age of 21, he came back with every reference work on framing and conservation available, as well as a vision of the future - he'd driven their Wizard CMC.
Fifteen years on, im very happy framing what some would call "cheap crap prints" if thats what my valued customers bring in to me.
When I do conservation framing, I know
why im doing it. I dont need "educate" my customers, and I wont insult them by turning them away if they cant afford the best materials/mouldings etc.
Maybe there is a niche market down under for "cheap crap print framing" that no-one has exploited yet
I'm certainly glad to have my existing slice of that market here, even if others turn their noses up at it.
Conservation is no big deal, unless you dont know why you are doing it, or what its for. Then you have a problem. Thats probably when people resort to a scattergun approach and frame everything -regardless of what it is or what the customer wants- to their own idea of "conservation" standards.
and as prospero says, mdf is not all created equal, well said. we still use it where appropriate.