I have spent the day making new mounts for several of my pictures, in order to recycle old picture frames. After having managed to do only two of these I am beginning to wonder very seriously whether it is worth the effort. Now that I have formed a reasonably accurate idea of the number of items I will put into the South Square exhibition in April, it has become clear that some effort is required in relation to presentation. Several of the items I want to include in the show are unframed at present, and in several cases the frames in which they were presented in a temporary way really need to be upgraded. The question I have been confronting, however, is how to go about this.
To employ a professional framer can be an expensive business. The person I use for most of my needs is very good indeed, but I have to pay for quality. If I were to send all of the items I want to be upgraded to him it would cost me several hundred pounds. I have also found in the past that professional framers do not like to be asked to put new mounts into frames made by somebody else. Consequently I have made myself bite the bullet today and cut two new mounts to fit old frames.
I guess that the result is acceptable in the circumstances. I can see, however, that the work is not of a professional standard, and ask myself whether that might deter a potential purchaser of the pieces in question. A consideration of equal importance, however, is that of time. I do not have the technical equipment that a proper framer would use, and consequently not only are there small differences in the accuracy of the work, but it takes a great deal longer to produce anything. Perhaps I create more waste material also, which would mean that the marginal advantage of cost gained by doing the job myself is reduced.
At the moment I am willing to continue with the task I set myself, but for the future I will think very carefully before I take on such an ambitious task again.