We frame the item, lovely, customer's very happy.
a week later they bring it back "this is all wrinkled up".
lets have a look.... when we finally prize the neutral ph budget daler mountboard off the MDF back, we find the print has been stuck down directly onto the MDF, with something like a permenant spraymount, worse, the glue is starting to come through and stain the print.
Now anyone whose read, or even glanced at the FATG standards can see whats wrong with sticking a print straight onto MDF then sticking a neutral PH cheap mount over the front of it.
My recommendation to the customer- ask the gallery for an unmounted replacement and we'll mount it properly for you. No charge, they are a good customer, and its no problem to help them out.
Then I get a phone call from the gallery, something like this..... "so whats wrong with it"
"It wasnt mounted properly"
"and thats just your opinion is it?"
"Yes thats my opinion. I would not have mounted it like that"
"so you are an expert are you?"
sigh..... "No im a framer, and Im saying I would have not mounted it like that. If it had not been stuck down, it would not be in the mess its in now"
"How would you have done it then?"
"the way the fine art trade guild recommend"
"who are the fine art trade guild?"
sigh..... "they set the minimum standards for framing and mounting, and thats what we try and keep to."
"well we get them from the artist, who has them done at XYZ framers" Then adds "hes a very well known artist you know" as if that makes it all right, and he's right and Im wrong.
Anyway, Ive already given the customer the FATG leaflet, and directed them to the FATG website. Our customer is more educated about the proper way to mount a primnt than the gallery or well known professional artist.
FFS what do they teach them at art college?
..... then the penny drops, this is the second or third mounted item we have had which has been stuck down at "XYZ framers" - after framing they start rippling, and cockling, and puckering up. last one was an expensive photograph, again sold from a gallery, ready mounted. Funnily enough, we'd had the same photographer in here, crying that our prices were too high, and couldn't we do it cheaper...
Im never one to slag off a collegue. we all have different ways of doing things, and you never know the reasons behind why a job may have been done in a certain way (more times than not, its do to the customer -artist or photographer- trying to squeeze the price down till the pips squeek) and we all have mortgages to pay, dogs to feed, bills to pay. The luxury of turning down a paying job isn't always an option when the VAT man is hammering at the door
I dont blame the framers, lord knows artists can be notoriously tight fisted, and sometimes you just give them what they pay for or else you turn down the job, but how come some artists and galleries still accept very expensive prints for resale in poor materials? Poor "XYZ framers" end up risking getting a bad name, because their customer wants the cheapest possible job. I dont blame the gallery either, they just resell on commission.
But somehow the message about conservation or preserving decent artwork isn't getting through.
A lot of these people think that once its in a mount, in a browser in a gallery that is the finished product and the end of the chain.
once in a while I get a nervous moment about some of the jobs I did in the past down to a cost because an artist or photographer wanted to save a quid
