At a recent family occasion, I got talking to a cousin who I don’t see very often, and said that I would FaceBook her to arrange another reunion.  She replied, ‘Oh yes, PETITIONS!’

Petition Queen

She was referring to the fact that, on my FaceBook account, is petition after petition which I have signed, and which I then ask my friends and family to sign as well.  Now, I LOVE petitions and I don’t mind at all being known as Petition Queen because I think that they are an easy, non-violent and effective way to voice a protest.  I receive petitions from a number of organisations, who have the capability of amassing people power and, who save me the time and trouble of finding out about different causes and allow me to judge which cases I think are worth supporting or protesting about.  And it only takes a couple of minutes to do so – which is so important in a busy working day.  It is so EASY.

The jury seems to be out as to whether they are effective or not – the organisations concerned periodically claim success with a particular petition, saying that change happened because of the number of people who signed – and others claim that it is a waste of time as they ‘don’t make any difference anyway’.

Nature’s example

However, I believe that if enough people get together to voice a protest, then change can happen.  We only have to look at nature to realise that this is so:  large birds of prey are sometimes mobbed by a group of smaller, weaker birds if their young are at risk, and very often succeed in chasing the larger aggressor away – the power of numbers of smaller birds conquering the big foe.  Think of the power of large numbers of ants as opposed to a single creature which can be squashed very easily.  Or the collective power of a herd of wildebeest against a pride of lions.

Easy, Non-Violent, Effective

So, when enough people get together to sign a petition, the numbers are so great that their protest cannot be ignored, the ‘collective consciousness’ changes and then change happens.  You can help to change the world, hopefully to be a better place.  It is an easy, non-violent and effective way of letting governments and large organisations know that they are accountable and that ordinary people will be able to make their voice heard and take action if they need to.

We have power in numbers.  The trick is, to actually DO it and sign.

If you are interested in signing petitions, and by doing so helping to instigate change, please see the following organisations – I am not paid to recommend these groups and you are responsible for choosing which causes you wish to fight for.

www.change.org

www.greenpeace.org.uk

www.avaaz.org

www.38degrees.org.uk

www.thepetitionsite.com

Fish Frames are back to framing unusual items once more!  And a guitar, signed by Roger Daltrey and Green Day, was one of the more unusual items we have been asked to frame.  But the guitar wasn’t any ordinary guitar – it was a Les Paul Gibson, a most beautiful item in its own right – and very valuable!

The customer wished to see through the sides of the box frame and also wished a plaque to be made with the pertinent details on it.

Our ‘framer extraordinaire’, Simon, put his thinking cap on and came up with, more or less, a display case, with conservation glass on all sides – front, top, bottom, right and left, with the guitar placed on suedette conservation mountboard, to make it look very plush.  He basically made two frames and joined them together with the glass, plus some fillets, corner pieces and silicone.

Completely removable

How did we attach the guitar to the mountboard?  Well, we used extremely strong fishing wire to sew four points along the guitar to the board, plus we bought a guitar neck hanger from a local music shop to hold the neck of the guitar more securely.  The guitar is completely removable from the frame, with no damage being done to it whatsoever!  Which is what conservation framing is all about really.

‘Who are you?’

So, after asking Si ‘Who are you?’ he decided he wasn’t a ‘Substitute’ who was going for a walk along the ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ but ‘King for a Day’ when he had finished the job and certainly not a ‘Basket Case’, even though he felt like one!  (Sorry, couldn’t resist).

We were really pleased with the result but, more importantly, so was our customer!  Another fantastic result and very special thanks to Si.

On Saturday 3^rd December 2011, we at Fish Frames are once again holding our annual Christmas event in the shop.  This year we are offering up to 50% off selected artwork, with other reductions also available.

One of the best buys has to be ‘Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’, limited edition framed print by Doug Hyde.  Originally for sale at £525 it will be on sale for £300 on Saturday.  If you are a lover of his work, this has to be for you!We have limited edition etchings by Tim Bulmer on offer at £22.50 each (originally £45) and our last two framed Simon Bull limited edition prints will also be on sale at £150.

We have one remaining mounted limited edition print by Fletcher Sibthorp, ‘La Linea Roja’, at 25% off, so is down from £253 to £189.

Our ultra-modern work of art on aluminium by Kevin Bandee, ‘Circles in Red’ has £100 off and there are many more mounted and framed prints and originals available at discounted prices.

Three works of art which are not included in the sale are those in our window:  limited edition print White ‘Splash’ by Grafter, limited edition print by Banksy, and an original framed oil by Frances Jordan, but they are still interesting to see, are brilliantly framed and make our Christmas window look really special!

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday for a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The bubble wrap supply in the shop has almost run out.

So what?

Well, for us it’s a good thing because our next order will consist of bio-degradable bubble wrap.  It’s slightly more expensive but we think it’s worth it.

Why?

Because the world’s resources are not infinite and we need to make sure there is a future for our children, their children and their children etc.  By safeguarding our planet in the present moment, we can give them a future.

Why use it at all?

Wrapping our completed frame orders in bubble wrap is the best way of protecting them and we can’t find a better alternative.  (If anyone has another idea, please let us know).

Balancing act

At Fish Frames, we try to do as much as we can to be kind to our environment whilst still maintaining a viable business, which can be quite a balancing act.  So, here is what we do:

• Recycle our glass waste – we have to pay our supplier to take this away and recycle for us.  For some reason, the Council say that the glass we use has too much lead in it so they can’t recycle it.  General consensus of opinion amongst fellow framers and suppliers is that this is nonsense.  So we pay someone else to take it.
• Recycle our waste board and paper products – everything comes wrapped in cardboard, and there is waste from our mountboard and backing boards, so it is all recycled.  Again, we have to pay extra for this facility.
• Recycle all our tubes, tape innards, etc.  We keep all the ‘round things’ and give them to local schools to use in their art and craft classes.
• The wood for our mouldings is from sustainable sources, as far as possible, and a lot of our suppliers are now FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) registered, which is good news for all.
• Use bio-degradable bubble wrap, which funnily enough, is green-coloured!
• Use low-voltage, LED lights in the gallery

On a personal note, I also try to walk to work as much as possible, so I am not using the car so much, which means less petrol usage, less wear and tear on the car and a fitter, healthier me!

Green living at home

We also recycle at home – all cardboard and paper, glass and plastic, plastic carrier bags, compost of raw food and food waste for cooked food.  I think the food waste is a great idea – landfill is becoming a real problem and anything sensible which can reduce the problem is a good thing.  I am also in the process of amassing cloth bags so I don’t have to use plastic carrier bags at all.  They stopped issuing them in the Republic of Ireland some years ago, and I think it would be a good thing if we did it here too.

The trouble with plastic

My personal bugbear is plastic (hence the glee about the bio degradable bubble wrap) – and I know that there is an awful lot of it on this planet which is incredibly useful (bubble wrap) and we cannot do without it now, BUT, every single piece of plastic that has ever been made on this earth is still here.  It doesn’t degrade but breaks down into the tiniest pieces which usually end up in our oceans, which the fish eat, and then we eat the fish so we have tiny pieces of plastic inside us.  Steps are being taken to resolve this problem, for example, recently, an Italian company called Minerv, was awarded certification for the first 100% biodegradable plastic produced from sugar cane.

David de Rothschild, founder of the Plastiki expedition, in an interview for The Guardian, put it best, in my opinion:

We have two types of plastic now,” he says. “First, dumb, single-use plastic bags and plastic bottles. We need to eliminate them, phase them out, tax them out of existence. And then we need to invest in the second kind of plastics that we can reduce, reuse and recycle, that we can use in computers and in life-saving machinery and everything else. If we can build a boat that can sail across the Pacific made of this stuff, why can’t we make a skateboard or a bike helmet with it?”

Couldn’t have put it better myself!

Picture: www.anorak.co.uk

Last week a customer turned up with seven framed textile pictures which had been framed at a shop where a framing service was offered, but which was not done on the premises.  She was not happy.  She said the mounts and frames did not suit the pictures, which had great sentimental value for her, and she was so disappointed that she hadn’t been able to put them up on the wall.

Unhappy and upset

I took one of them to pieces.  Not only was the frame made of plastic, when she had been told that it was wood, but the precious textile had been literally stuck with self-adhesive brown tape to a piece of tatty old card, which definitely was not pH-neutral, with double-sided self-adhesive tape being stuck on the textile to the mount.  I was astounded.  The customer said that she had explained how precious the items were to her, as they had been made by her Great Aunt who was now sadly deceased.

Bad practice!

When I took all the others to pieces, there was a variety of ways in which they had each been stuck in the frames; one had been taped with brown self-adhesive tape to the back of the mount, which resulted in the rippling of the textile; one had been stuck down onto a piece of old board with spraymount (!); one had pieces of tape stuck down wily-nily; and all of them had double-sided tape sticking the textile to the mount.

It was a lesson in bad practice!  None of them had been stretched and no conservation materials had been used at all.

Good practice!

So, we went through the process of choosing complementary coloured mounts for each textile picture, and choosing frames which suited each little picture the best.  All our mountboards are pH-neutral, and we use pH-neutral foamcore when we stretch textiles.

Conservation materials are used so that there will be no further deterioration by acid onto the items being framed.  The textiles were exquisitely done with fantastic detail, such as the reflection of a swan on the water.  They really were lovely heirloom pieces.  We used pH-neutral foamcore and tapestry pins to stretch and secure each textile, (as shown in the photo),  so that they lay flat within the frame, with materials which would not cause any future damage.

Then we used ph-Neutral mountboard with conservation glass in each frame.

Happy, confident and satisfied

When the customer came in to collect the finished products, she said that they were exactly as she had imagined them being framed in the first place!

Plus also, she had the knowledge that nothing within the frame was going to damage her textile pictures in the future.  Job well done and another happy customer!

A customer came in the other day with a Banksy limited edition print which had been framed in a plain black modern frame, without conservation glass.  He wanted to put conservation glass in it, to help prevent fading, as conservation glass is 99% uv protective.  I also recommended that we put a spacer between the print and the glass, as there was no mount on the print, and this usually does the job of keeping the glass off the print.

We got talking and I mentioned to him that a couple of years ago, we had framed another Banksy print, Jack and Jill (Police kids), in a very traditional ornate silver frame, so that the new was juxtaposed with the old, and that it had looked very effective.

About an hour after this conversation, the customer came back and said that he wanted to look at alternative frames for his Banksy, and that he thought putting it in a very traditional frame was a fantastic idea.  We went through a moulding catalogue and he chose a large ornate frame which we didn’t have in stock, so we ordered a sample.  Once the sample arrived, the customer returned and agreed the frame and the mount – a beautiful crimson suedette conservation mountboard by Arqadia – and conservation glass.  All processes followed conservation framing as laid down by the Fine Art Trade Guild.

The result is shown in the photo below.  I think it looks absolutely stunning.

This is a great example of how ‘thinking outside the box’ can result in a completely alternative look to a piece of art.  And that sometimes, taking a risk and doing something completely different, works as well as, if not better than, playing safe.

On Sunday 7^th August we went to the ‘Majestic’ Exhibition by Swaroop Arts being held at the Air Gallery in Dover Street, London.  Bhumi and Milan are the artists from Croydon and Fish Frames did the framing of their original canvasses for the Exhibition.

The Air Gallery is such a nice space for an Exhibition and Swaroop’s work looks stunning on their walls.  Bhumi’s work is finely detailed, often using Swarovski crystals – she has the patience of a saint! – whilst Milan’s is more representational, with a spiritual twist.  This husband and wife team complement each other very well, and have collaborated on one or two pieces.  There is also a variety of different sized canvasses, from very large (40” x 50”) down to very small (30 cm sq), so there is something for everyone, depending on the size of your pockets and your walls!

If you get a chance to go and see their work – the Exhibition runs until Saturday 13^th August, but may be extended – then it is well worth a trip.

On Monday 27th June 2011, I made history when I was inducted as the first female President of the Rotary Club of Croydon East.  And very proud of the honour I am.

It turned out to be one of the hottest evenings of the year but we had a great evening despite the heat.  Partners were invited, and my family and two closest friends were also with me for this milestone in my life.  We had a lovely meal, as usual, courtesy of The Chateau.

President Lynn and Immediate Past President Dennis

President Dennis outlined our achievements over the past year of his Presidency, as well as our social highlights, and then handed over the ‘chain of office’ to me.  My first official duties were to induct Ian Ferris as my Vice President and then to thank our Treasurer for producing our printed yearbooks.

President Lynn inducting Ian as Vice President 2011/12 (and I'm not giving him a massage!)

Then it was my turn to make my maiden speech.  As the first female President to be elected to this club, I took the opportunity to highlight the fact that a woman was now in charge, and that the men had better look out!  It was all taken in good part by everyone, and I hope that everyone realised that I was just having fun and that I really do believe in the equality of the sexes.

I mentioned that I had enrolled all the male members on an evening class ‘For Men Only’, including topics such as:

• Toilet rolls – do they grow on the holders?

• Losing the Remote Control

• Learning how to find things

• Real men ask for directions when lost (with a real-life testimonial from the one man who did)

• Is it genetically impossible to sit quietly as she parallel parks?

• Getting over it: Learning how to live with being wrong all the time.

I think all the women enjoyed it far more than the men!  But, I am a great believer in balance, so I told a final joke for the men, just so that they didn’t feel too stereo-typed!

Two men are out ice-fishing at their favourite fishing hold, just fishing quietly and drinking beer.  Almost silently, so as not to scare the fish, Bob says “I think I’m going to divorce my wife – she hasn’t spoken to me in over two months.”  Earl continues slowly sipping his beer, then thoughtfully says, “You better think it over – women like that are hard to find.”

I am looking forward to a great, non-sexist, fun-packed and money-raising year!

Making my speech, looking very 'school teacher-ish'

photographs: Beaumont-Wright Photography

The trouble with framing is that you don’t actually see what goes on inside the frame.

I am prompted to write this as we have had three separate enquiries in the last week, concerning jobs which were completed by other framing companies.

The final enquiry was from a customer who had been to a shop where framing was not done on the premises.  She was unhappy with the colour of the mount chosen, and wasn’t convinced that the frame was right either.  She said the lady in the shop didn’t know anything about colours and she felt that she didn’t really know what she was talking about – my customer’s words, not mine!

Flying colours

So, we went through colours of mounts, found a lovely double mount to pick out a colour in the limited edition print, and ended up with a new frame as well.  All our boards are conservation or white core boards, which means they are pH neutral, and conservation tapes are used, so her print will be well-protected for the future.  We re-used the glass in the original frame, as she had already in effect paid twice for the frame, but I recommended conservation glass to her, which she will bear in mind for the future.  She said she was really happy with my advice and felt that her needs had been completely understood and met.

So the trouble with framing is that you don’t see what goes on inside the frame … unless you come to a professional and reputable framer, who knows the correct materials to use, and how to use them, and who frames your items to enhance and protect them, just like us!

Winner of Best Mount Design 2010

The trouble with framing is that you don’t actually see what goes on inside the frame.

I am prompted to write this as we have had three separate enquiries in the last week, concerning jobs which were completed by other framing companies.

The second enquiry was by phone, regarding the framing of football shirts. The customer said that he had a shirt which he had taken out of a frame and found that it had been stapled to the board.  I explained that he needed to get the staples out very carefully, as not only could they snag the material but also they would eventually rust,  causing damage to the shirt, which was quite valuable as it had been signed.

Non-staple diet

Our shirts are framed using conservation materials, and are either tagged or sewn onto the mountboard, with a spacer to keep the shirt off the glass.  So there will be nothing to harm the shirt in the future.  We NEVER use staples on our shirts.  Conservation glass (which helps prevent fading) should be used if the shirt is signed, as when signatures fade, the shirt becomes worthless.

So the trouble with framing is that you don’t see what goes on inside the frame … unless you come to a professional and reputable framer, who knows the correct materials to use, and how to use them, and who frames your items to enhance and protect them, just like us!

Signed Crystal Palace shirt.