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Picture Framing Magazine

Beginnings - How did everyone start out in framing?

Beginnings-How did everyone start out in framing?

Like John Ranes said, lets' pretend it is 1976.....and I am working at a DIY frame shop in a western suburb of Minneapolis, and John Ranes comes in as a customer....so I knew him before he was a frameshop owner! I also purchased one or 2 photographs from John to give as gifts....so I helped him along in his photography business as well....and then there is Greg Perkins, who was an employee at another DIY shoop before opening his own shop before being whisked away by Larson Juhl....we learned a lot of the basics at the same time in the 70s....and I remember showing him about French mats, ruling pens and how to make decoraive mats....

Anyway, I began as a college grad that majored in art and German, didn't want to be a teacher but wanted to be around art. So, I got a job in a frameshop, in an industry I never even knew existed. I have never left, still feel challenged, motivated, and priviledged to see the caliber of art that I work with on a daily basis. From those first days at the DIY shop, I moved around to a few different places in the Twin Cities and lived in CA in the early 80s where I met Rob Markoff when he still had a full head of hair. How many years later and I still run into these guys at the shows. That's one of the things I love about the PPFA, some of us "old timers" are still around, learning new skills and teaching the newbies. For the last 25 years I have had my dream job at Master Framers. Unlike may of you, I have never been the owner of a frame shop, but a very happy employee who is respected by her employer and peers. Would I trade this career for another? Not likely.

Sue Davis, CPF,
Master Framers
St. Paul, MN
www.masterframers.com
www.facebook.com/MASTERFRAMERS
 
Art scool
DIY shop
another shop for 15 years
massage therapist 10 years
garage framer
WCAF/PPFA /DON BERKMAN /CPF test
came home bought a building 2 weeks later
never looking back!
 
It was a dark and stormy month...January 1978 I was working construction in rural western Nebraska. Hadn't seen my wife in the daylight, the sun, or the mercury above freezing for a month. My Father, who had started the frame shop in 1973 as a hobby/business, called one evening while I was thawing out and said he was thinking about selling the shop.
My previous experience in framing had been for myself as an art student in college, seasonal help at the family business, and at a shop in DC that specialized in Islamic antiquities. My business experience was nil.
With the optimism of youth, and a freezing new wife (native Floridian), I took the offer and agreed to buy the business not knowing price, income, or terms. Once I learned to enjoy the roller coaster it became a great ride.
In September of this year the business will be 40 years old, and I'll have owned it for 35 of them.
 
In 1983 I went into a new business in my hometown hoping to sell a yearbook ad. It was an art school that added a frame shop when they relocated. At the end of the sale (he took a $50 ad) the business owner asked if I knew anyone at my school who liked art and needed a job after school. I did both of those things. I worked for Ron in various combinations of part- and full-time over the next five years.

From there I went on to work in a variety of framing businesses in three states, including two years as a customer service rep for a wholesale distributor. That is where I first became involved in PPFA. (Greater Los Angeles Chapter).

I opened the doors of my own shop in July 2004.
 
I started pushing a broom around my grandfather's shop when I was six years old in 1961 and ran errands for my grandmother. Grandpa started in business in 1911 after working in another shop in town for a few years. We sold art supplies, framing, original art, prints and gifts. I made $ 5.00 a day and all the "chicken feed" (leftover change) from my grandma's errands. BIG money in those days for a small tot.

It was a pleasure growing up working with my grandma and grandpa, dad and mom, five of my six siblings and cousins and uncles and a myriad of friends through the years. I was the only one in the family either smart enough or dumb enough to stick around... haven't quite figured out which...

I remember cutting glass, mats and fitting up pictures standing on a stool because I couldn't reach the fit-up bench at eight years of age and the smell of the rabbit skin glue pot, which I still plug in now and then to remember when.

It was crowded, but at one time we had 4 full time framers and six part-timers all working in the backroom shop.
 
Dave, welcome to the Framer's Corner! I knew that your business had been around a while, but was delighted to see the story. I will always remember you digging out that bamboo moulding for me to make a customer very happy. I see her socially from time to time, and she never fails to mention it and your kindness in getting us the moulding.
 
I started framing when I was 17. I was visiting my aunt one summer who owned a shop in LI and was helping my mom frame some things. I being unable to drive, (and therefore escape while they did the design work) was bored out of my mind and made the mistake of saying so. My aunt said with a glint in her eye that she could find something for me to do, and quickly showed me how to cut a mat. One 2ft high pile of matboard later, a lesson on hand cutting glass, and some time on the saw and underpinner, and I was hooked. Deciding to take a year off before college, I went in search of my first real job, and found an opening for a part time framer at a local art and craft store. 14 years later, I'm now the manager, and still love getting up every morning knowing I'm going to get to frame something I've never seen before. Eventually hope to attain my dream of owning my own shop!
 
During the college years I studied calligraphy in hopes of improving my note-taking skills. That didn't work and I still scribble unintelligibly, but I got hooked on the letter forms. So, since the late 60s, I have studied and practiced the lettering arts, first as a hobby, then as a part-time basement business, and eventually as a serious source of income.

After college I spent about 20 years in industrial distribution of electrical and mechanical power equipment, and designed industrial lighting systems for a while, too. My Bachelor's degree is in business administration, but over the years my work required quite a few college-level engineering courses. All along I kept working on my calligraphic skills.

By the mid-80s I was in the basement nearly every night after work, sipping wine and lettering resolutions and certificates for customers who also wanted them framed. That connected me with all of the local framers, and like most other consumers, I figured they must be making a fortune in framing. Framing is expensive, you know. :biggrin-new:

Around that time I decided to become a full-time calligrapher, which is what inspired ARTFRAME in 1988. I had a calligraphy studio in the front of the store and hire a framer to work in the back room to pay the rent. Business was great for a few years, then consumers and businesses began buying personal computers and printers, and making their own cards, invitations, certificates, resolutions, menus, etc. Calligraphy went the way of buggy whips by the mid-90s, but by then I was hooked on framing.

I still do some calligraphy, but I'm pretty serious about framing now. :nod:
 
1966 started working at a local art supplier, gallery and framing shop to pay for art supplies. I only do a little framing now as most of my time is spent painting.

jb
 
Welcome Christine,

I am a very new framer myself. I started my home-based business in 2010. I was retiring from the Air Force Reserves in 2012 and wanted something to make up the difference in pay I'd be missing for the 10 yrs it would take me to start receiving my retirement pay. I had always wanted to learn the skill so just took a leap of faith in my abilities and bought the equipment. The DIY shops located on the bases around the world that John had spoke of have helped me tremendously. So here I am three years later and still hanging in there. When I get off of work at my primary job, I frame!!! I am also from a small town where the people don't want to spend too much, but after they see all the sample frames I have hanging around, they decide they would like something like that in their homes. Good luck and this forum is wonderful for advice from these awesome experts and just amateurs like us! :smile-new:
 
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