Seriously this is the largest piece of work I have framed to date. Measuring 143cm X 80cm and finishing at 170cm X 99cm “Adam’s Back” was a welcome challenge to complete in my compact and bijou workshop.
It was a privilege and a pleasure to work on this stunning graphite and wash drawing by Claire Sparkes SGFA. which has not surprisingly been shortlisted for the National Open Art 2016 (NOA’16) Exhibitions.
Claire’s usual picture framer was about to go on leave and wasn’t able to meet her deadline for the exhibition. He kindly recommended that she visit me, because he knows the particular care I take of high value pieces of work. He was confident in my ability he just wasn’t sure if I could take on something of this scale. After meeting Claire and “Adam’s Back”, I just had to help this lovely lady prepare for this prestigious exhibition. For so many reasons it was important to me that I did a good job, I didn’t want to disappoint my colleague and undermine his recommendation or disappoint the artist, nor did I want to jeopardise the piece of work and its place in the exhibition.
I agreed to do the work and calculated everything I needed. I double, triple and quadruple checked dimensions and material availability because everything I needed, barring the moulding needed to be delivered cut to size. With a deep breath I pressed return sending the email order.
Six days later, having received no acknowledgement of the order (except an email read receipt) I chased it, and after a few internal battles, various members of staff fulfilled as much of the order they could barring the oversized mount which had to be prepared by a different division of the company. Two days later, having received all but the mount, I received a phone call from this division advising that they can’t physically cut a mount of this size, their machinery didn’t operate to this scale. Why I wasn’t made aware of this at the time of the order? I don’t know; the mount was just 15mm too large. I now had everything but no mount and no means of cutting one. A number of options later it was finally agreed that my delivery would be restocked and everything would be supplied to the revised dimensions, “Phew!”
Everything in place (and checked!), the moulding was cut to size, waxed, and pinned together. The drawing was mounted and hinged with the under-mount and the entire framing package including the UV glazing checked for dust and sealed. All there was left to do was to place the package into the back of the frame, put in place the backing board and seal. Turn it over admire, and apply a final coat of wax to the moulding. Done!
Sealing the framing package, preventing the ingress of excess dust and insects.
On collection Claire was delighted with the outcome, thanked me for finishing the job in good time and presented me with a bottle of wine and one of her cards containing a lovely message of thanks.
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