The Framers Forum

I made this for my friend as a birthday gift for his wife who is apparently something of a pen thief. I made the moulding from ash using a table saw then put a groove down the middle using a router. Stained with a walnut wood dye then sanded back around the edges to give it a slightly worn look, then final coat of finishing oil. The inside is a box which I constructed using the bits that were left when I cut the rebate out of the moulding and plywood, the box then fits inside the frame.

Like that - very nice job - needs a small hammer next to it for emergencies !!!

I like your work. Very nice. Great website too.

As a matter of interest, what model router do you use?

Its a McAllister one from B&Q, this one http://www.diy.com/nav/fix/power-tools/ ... W-12389435. I did have a cheaper one but found that spending a bit more is definitely worth while.

when I look at the messy attempts I've made at routing with a machine that cost nearly £500, I'm very impressed with your's. I'd better get practicing!

Do you have a router table too? That makes it so much easier

Ah, now you're getting sophisticated...

Now there's something to write home about!

Like the way you have arranged the grain patterns. A detail like that makes a frame something special.

I want a router table.

Ha ha, i love things like these.
You should have just left out the writing and put it behind museum glass, so she would keep forgetting and go to grab them!

Seem to be plenty available on eBay Prospero all at reasonable prices. I've got my eye on a couple local to me and here's one that might be good for you.

Missed it. Thanks anyway. That looked like a nice bit of kit. I'll keep my ears peeled for another......

Martin Tracy, who has a framing Business in Bath, gave one of the framing seminars at this years Giftware show at the NEC. He suggested that framers should be making stuff that shows their skills and imagination that can be used to display and be retailable. This example looks if it might be in that category, if shown with a variety of captions there is a chance that it is going to capture some ones eye.

I once bought a job lot of old hand written documents and framed them with goose quills cut and stained like writing quills, they sold like hot cakes. I recently saw some of them as part of the wall decor of a 1950's set in a John Thaw drama. Interesting that a props director should think that something made in the 1990's appropriate to give a 1950's image.

It is possible that the interior decor market is short of quirky local ideas as the volume of sameness that is coming in via cheap imports lacks true creativity.