The Framers Forum

LION have introduced many new moulding ranges, see them here www.lionpic.co.uk/picture-frame-moulding/

Also, request your copy of Mouldings2020 here www.lionpic.co.uk/pre-order-mouldings-2020-catalogue/

New ranges include:

Vermeer - Inspired by frames of the Dutch Golden Age www.lionpic.co.uk/r/26302/Vermeer
Jet - Upmarket & modern brushed metallic foils www.lionpic.co.uk/r/26300/Jet
Graf - Step detail & contrast sight edge add interest www.lionpic.co.uk/r/26299/Graf
Lily - Petite profile great for needlework and watercolours www.lionpic.co.uk/r/26298/Lily

and many more!

with only a 10mm rebate depth i'm not sure the Lily range is suitable for needlework?

Some of my local ccompetitors regularly frame needlework in frames with shallow rebates like this. It's quite common practice. You probably would not like some of the practices and techniques they use, but this is very much the norm for shops that have to maintain a fast turn over to pay for high rents and overheads to operate from high footfall locations.

We have a local competitor in a local town who I respect. His overheads are crazy and he needs to keep a high rate of turning over customer orders just to keep paying the bills. It is to some extent a working class town and customers come in and say how much will it cost to frame this? What they really mean is how cheap can I get this framed for.

He is not easy to beat on price and this is for him a matter of survival, but when he is given the chance he does some really outstanding framing as well. I'm not knocking him at all, he's just a good example of how to survive in a very demanding situation and there are many like him. I can't compete with him on low cost needlework framing, in fact I'm not even close.

Using this sort of formula, there's only a single mount (using cheap mount board), the needlework is stuck down on to one side of a scrap piece of mount board using double sided tape and both the needlework and mount board are cut to size and some staples added to keep everything in place, when the double sided tape eventually gives out. This is then followed with a corrigated backing board and all of that will easily fit into a 10mm deep frame rebate.

I hope you don't think that this is anything unusual, far from it, it's the norm in so many basic commercial level framing businesses and it's quicker to make the back close to flush with the reverse of the frame, than to cut and fold the backing tape in finish it off. Backing boards are usually stapled in place and everything looks neat. This is what many of us need to understand, when customers are looking to save money.

Finding classy looking mouldings in this sort of frame dimensions and rebate size at a reasonable prices is not so easy. This frame moulding pitches it's self quite well into this market.