SPRING 2016
The Rich History of Framing Part One BY LYNN ROBERTS
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE Why You Should Give Polystyrene a Chance BY ED GOWDA
Start Your Frequent Framers Club BY PAUL CASCIO
Time Management Tips BY CLAIRE SYKES
SPRING 2016 decormagazine.com info@decormagazine.com ______ CEO/Publisher: Eric Smith Editor-in-Chief: Megan Kaplon Managing Editor: Linda Mariano Copy Editors: Nina Benjamin, Fran Granville Contributing Editors: Paul Cascio, Ed Gowda Art Director: Stacy Dalton Senior Designer: Lizz Anderson ________ Advertising Rick Barnett Managing Director, Exhibitions & Media Sales rick.barnett@redwoodmg.com 831-747-0112 Ashley Tedesco Director of Media Marketing Sales ashley.tedesco@redwoodmg.com 831-970-5611 Rosana Rader Director of Sales & Exhibitions rosana.rader@redwoodmg.com 831-840-4444 _______ Operations & Finance Geoff Fox geoff.fox@redwoodmg.com ____ Subscriptions Visit decormagazine.com for subscription information. _________ DECOR serves all segments of the art and framing market, including art and framing retailers, picture framers, interior decorators, artists, home-furnishing providers, OEM/volume framers, gift retailers, photo studios, suppliers, distributors, and manufacturers. The magazine features articles and columns from longtime and well-known industry experts and top art and framing retailers.
Cover Image: “Adoration of the Shepards,” by Domenico Ghirlandaio
Team Notes SPRING 2016 Each issue, our Team Notes column offers an inside perspective on art and design, featuring stories and recommendations from members of the RMG team. This issue, we wondered: What is the best piece of advice about framing and arranging art you’d give to a young collector who is just starting to acquire artwork? “Don’t skimp! Framing can make or break a piece of art. Seek the advice of a professional framer and use quality, conservation products for longevity. Keep in mind that art is something that can be passed on through generations. In terms of arranging or hanging art, don’t hang it too high. The general rule is that 66 percent of the artwork should be below eye level.” — Eric Smith, President & CEO “When in doubt, create a template the size of your artwork and place it where you think you might like to hang your picture. This will give you a sense of space, centering, distance, and height that will allow you to avoid holding up large, heavy artwork. To hold up your template, you can use artist’s masking tape, which is less sticky than standard masking tape and most likely will not remove wallpaper or paint.” — Ashley Tedesco, Director of Media Marketing Sales “Framing should complement the artwork, not overpower it. The safe bet is to use black for contemporary art or metal tones for traditional art. Floater frames have remained a popular choice for showcasing contemporary canvas works as well as photography. Also, when hanging a collection in one area, staggering the work and mixing sizes adds interest. In our home, the gathering of work in a specific area tells a unified story. It’s always fun to share the backstory of each piece with friends when they come over.” — Rick Barnett, Managing Director, Business Development Group “When framing, don’t forget to use a great mat or liner to complement the artwork. This sets it off and makes it more distinctive—and can help the art fit with your decor. A mat or liner can also be changed much more easily and less expensively than a frame should you decide to change where the artwork is hanging.” — Linda Mariano, Managing Director of Marketing
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INDUSTRY INNOVATORS
The Moulding Market NEW COLLECTIONS FROM SOME OF THE BEST IN THE BIZ
DELTA
Delta Picture Frame Company’s newest offerings—3 ¼" sculptured scoop mouldings available in five finishes—are ideal for clients seeking to frame large works of art with high-quality yet understated materials. deltapictureframe.com
BELLA
Bella Moulding’s Winter 2016 release features 68 new items, including the Malecon and Marcello Collections. Giving every framing project a boost of texture, the synthetic leather mouldings that make up the Malecon Collection are inspired by Havana, Cuba, and are available in 16 shades. The Marcello Collection channels the panache and black-and-white color palette of classic Italian cinema, deriving its name from Italian film star Marcello Mastroianni. bellamoulding.com
R724
3 1/4” W
R725
3 1/4” W
R724
3 1/4” W
R725
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R724
3 1/4” W
R725
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R725
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R724 R724 R722
3 1/4” 3 1/4” WW 3 1/4” W
R725 R725 R721
3 1/4” 3 1/4” WW 3 1/4” W
R722
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R721
3 1/4” W
R722
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R721
3 1/4” W
3 1/4” W
R722
3 1/4” W
R721
3 1/4” W
R722 R722 R723
3 1/4” 3 1/4” WW
R721 R721
3 1/4” 3 1/4” WW 3 1/4” W
R723
3 1/4” W
DeltaPictureFrame.com R723 DeltaPictureFrame.com R723 R723 R723
3 1/4” W 3 1/4” W 3 1/4” 3 1/4” WW
DeltaPictureFrame.com DeltaPictureFrame.com ROMA DeltaPictureFrame.com DeltaPictureFrame.com Roma Moulding released its 2016 Winter Collection on the first of the year, adding 54 new mouldings to its already extensive selection. Fitting into two lines—Simply Roma and Roma One—the new products are all authentic wood. The Winter Collection also includes 25 new photo frames. romamoulding.com
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THE GUERRILLA FRAMER
REWARD Your Customers A rewards program accelerates growth and increases customer loyalty
Do you want to increase customer loyalty and motivate your customers to buy more frames more often? If so, starting a frequent framers club can help you do it. A frequent framers club is a rewards program for your customers that tightens the bonds of loyalty. I like to think of it as “guerrilla glue”; it holds your customers tight and keeps them coming back by rewarding them for their loyalty. A frequent framers club is similar to the rewards programs that airlines, hotels, and many other industries offer. The difference is that the program is for framers’ customers, and it directly addresses two of framers’ biggest business challenges: getting customers to buy more frames and getting them to do it within a specified time. Those in the framing industry are fortunate because their customers tend to be fairly loyal, but a bit of extra glue can’t hurt. Your frequent framers club boosts not only loyalty but also sales by giving your customers an incentive to buy more frames more often. 94
One of the keys to a successful rewards program is to make the reward attainable by setting the bar low enough that most of your customers can visualize themselves cashing in. Many rewards programs tend to benefit only the business, but those that fairly reward customers will benefit the business owner a lot more in the end. A pizza shop near my home has a rewards program, but it’s not very good, in my opinion. You need to buy 25 pizzas before you get a free medium cheese pizza. I love pizza, but if I have to buy 25 of them, the prize needs to be bigger—a lot bigger. Say, for example, free heart bypass surgery. When the goal line is so far away that it’s almost invisible, customers won’t care and won’t be motivated to spend. In a program with an attainable goal, almost all customers should feel like they can reach the goal line; otherwise, they won’t bother to try. If the pizza-shop owner were to set the reward bar lower—perhaps requiring the purchase of 10 or 15 pizzas— and make the prize a large pizza to provide
greater incentive, the program would be more attractive to the customers. In turn, the business would benefit more, despite the fact that it would be giving away more free pizzas. In addition to providing incentive and attainability, you also have to create a sense of urgency. This tactic will bring in customers more frequently and within a shorter timeframe in order to attain the reward. This accomplishment is especially significant for a framing business, in which getting customers to purchase more frequently is a constant challenge. To create urgency, give customers a limited yet reasonable amount of time—I recommend two years—to reach the goal line. You want to encourage customers to think of custom framing as something that is not just for decorating, but also for gift-giving at weddings, birthdays, graduations, and more. With these goals and requirements in mind, consider the structure and rules of a frequent framers club that will help D E CO R M AG A Z I N E .CO M
Halfpoint/Shutterstock
By Paul Cascio
increase sales from your customers at minimal cost. The basic structure of your frequent framers club will stipulate that if a customer buys five frames within a twoyear period, the sixth one will be free. You should calculate the allowed amount on the free frame on an average of the five previously purchased frames. This strategy prevents customers from framing five 8-by-10-inch pieces and then bringing in a 48-by-96-inch wall mural for free framing. Now, consider the math so you’ll fully understand what you’re offering and what the customer will receive. On the surface, it appears that you are offering a 16.7 percent discount to customers who purchase six frames. In reality, the discount is always somewhat smaller, unless all six pictures are the same size and are framed exactly alike. Some customers, despite their effort and good intentions, will not reach the goal in the allotted time, further reducing the discount. In evaluating whether this rewards program is something you should do, first SPRING 2016 EDITION
ask yourself: Would you accommodate a customer who asked for a 16.7 percent discount on six items to frame? I would, and I would encourage you to do so also. If many of your customers bought six frames from you over the next two years, even at a 17.5 percent discount, your net profit would be almost certain to improve substantially. Consider how many of your current customers have purchased six or more frames in the last two years. I doubt you would be pleased with what you find. If you want to increase sales—and who doesn’t?—a frequent framers club is a great way to maximize sales from your customers and give them something back as a reward for their continued patronage. ® Paul Cascio is the lead instructor for The American Picture Framing Academy (pictureframingschool.com). Cascio also provides business and sales training and consulting. Contact Cascio at pdc@pictureframingschool.com.
Reasons to love the frequent framer program It increases existing customers’ frequency of purchases, especially if you send them email reminders pointing out how close they are to earning a free frame and reminding them that the clock is ticking. This tactic also gives you a good excuse to email your customers. Free membership in the frequent framers club helps strengthen the bond of loyalty your customers have to your business. Customers tend to make their next purchase more quickly when they are trying to reach a rewards goal. The next time your customers need to purchase a gift, they’ll be more likely to think of custom framing, since that purchase will get them one step closer to a free frame.
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OP-ED
DEFENDING
POLYSTYRENE Give this budget-friendly wood alternative a chance By Ed Gowda A lot of framers have low opinions of polystyrene mouldings. exposed, unfinished surfaces on the front, back, or inside due to That’s OK. We all have products that we just don’t like, but I want wood’s absorptive properties. Polystyrene, on the other hand, is plastic and can be more easily disinfected. to make some arguments for the use of poly. Polystyrene is also easy to cut on a guillotine chopper. These First, polystyrene has always been a low-cost alternative to wood. Some customers don’t want to pay the cost of wood choppers kick up less dust than saws, use no electricity in many mouldings, and polystyrene is an option that allows you to cases, and are relatively inexpensive pieces of moulding-cutting make the sale to a customer who would otherwise walk out equipment. Cutting poly on a saw, however, requires a little more the door. Small independent framers sometimes have trouble practice. The saw blade tends to melt the poly, so the material must competing with big-box stores and high-volume online deal- pass through faster than is necessary with wood. ers, which receive a discount on wood mouldings. The price Joining can also be much easier with polystyrene than with difference between polystyrene and wood. If you use the correct glue, the join wood moulding could make up for sets up in about 30 seconds, giving you Technology and those discounts that are inaccessible a perfect corner without using vises and techniques have been to the average mom-and-pop frambefore you have to use an underpinner. advancing in the use of ing shop. I have had great success Although the glue creates a strong bond, plastics. Plastics users with advertising low-end diplomaI recommend that you also use v-nails. I and jersey-framing packages using usually use Plastibond 1500 glue. I have have been demanding polystyrene frames to reduce costs. improvements in plastics heard that polyvinyl-chloride glue for Customers have been pleased that I use in plumbing projects also works, but manufacturing, and can offer what they consider to be the my experience is that it needs at least 24 manufacturers are same thing that my competitors offer hours to dry. That requirement comfor a much lower price. If you don’t pletely negates one of the most important meeting or exceeding have an issue with competition, you benefits of using polystyrene: the speed of these demands. can charge the same retail price for project completion. Those who are accuspolystyrene as you do for wood and just increase your profits. tomed to using wood and have not used polystyrene should take Polystyrene is also considerably lighter than the average wood care to avoid getting polystyrene glue on the face of the moulding. moulding of comparative size. This feature gives you some versa- The glue works by melting the plastic, so even the smallest amount tility in situations in which weight might be an issue. will discolor or disfigure the surface of the frame. Some health-care facilities, such as hospitals, must meet new Wood moulding also attracts parasites, such as powderpost regulations requiring that their facilities do not use wood that has beetles. These beetles have become increasingly concerning for 96
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Polystyrene frames can look just as nice as more traditional wood frames framers, especially in southern states where there is no hard freeze to kill them. Beetles reportedly do not spread from the wood from which they hatched, but the emergence of just one beetle could cause enough damage to lose you a customer for life, and, as we all know, bad news spreads faster than good news. Polystyrene, on the other hand, has no such drawback; powderpost beetles have absolutely no interest in plastics. As I discussed in my last column, one of the major complaints that I have heard from framers in the industry is that the quality of wood moulding has been on the decline in recent years. The exact opposite is the case for polystyrene. Technology and techniques have been advancing in the use of plastics. Plastics users have been demanding improvements in plastics manufacturing, and manufacturers are meeting or exceeding these demands. A lot of industries need lighter and cheaper materials of good quality, and plastics perfectly fill this need. Framers often must use materials that are unique to framing. This type of restriction lowers demand, increases cost, and can stifle innovation. Having allies in other industries who will join framers in the demand for better plastics will help move this part of our industry in a more positive direction. When framers first began using polystyrene for picture moulding, concerns arose about off-gassing—the release of gas
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that is dissolved, trapped, frozen, or absorbed in some material. Polystyrene has now been in use for more than 20 years, however, and the plastic material doesn’t seem to be any more destructive than wood. I hope that this information offers reassurance, but even if you still have concerns, you may want to consider using a more suitable material for items that require an extreme amount of conservation. Don’t get me wrong. I am not calling for framers to abandon wood; wood frames still account for most of my sales. I just think it might be time to stop badmouthing a viable alternative. Manufacturers have made great strides in polystyrene-moulding production. Some of you may remember those early plastic-looking poly frames and have the impression that that is still all you get from this medium, but some great-looking options now exist that convincingly mimic the look of high-quality wood mouldings. I encourage you to give them another look and consider whether they might be a good addition to the lines that you carry. ® With three Framing Palace locations in Maryland, Ed Gowda has specialized in custom framing for more than 25 years. One of his passions is to share information and ideas within the industry. Contact him at framingpalace.com. 97
Wrestling
WITH TIME MANAGEMENT It’s already 3 p.m., and you still haven’t gotten back to one of your customers about that framing order she requested. Your to-do list is a mile long, and your inbox is spilling over. You’d like to shut your office door so you can tackle those emails and invoices, but you don’t want to shut out your employees. So tonight you’ll be working late—again. How can you get your work done and still work with others? Just as important, how can you get your work done and still have a life? Time management. It’s not only for managers; all of the employees at your framing business can benefit from it. And if you’re a one-person show, then good time management becomes even more important. Time management is important because time is so valuable. Unlike money, even with proper investment, time doesn’t grow. It’s not a renewable resource, and it can’t be recycled. You have to cherish it and spend it wisely. The ultimate key to time management is balance. It’s wise to take deep breaths and frequent breaks along with all the work you have to do. By pacing yourself throughout the day, you replenish yourself. And when you’re fresh, you make better use of your time. 98
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elwynn/Shutterstock
Get more out of your business and your life by being conscious of how you use your time By Claire Sykes
u KNOW HOW YOU SPEND YOUR TIME The first step toward managing your time effectively is knowing how you use it. How do you spend your time? Monitor yourself and find out. For one week, keep track of what you do during each day. 1. At the top of a sheet of paper, write the categories of activities you engage in: phoning in orders to sales reps, waiting on customers, paying bills, answering emails, planning advertising, holding employee meetings, and even chatting with staff at the water cooler. SPRING 2016 EDITION
2. Jot down how much time you spend with each activity. 3. At the end of each day, add up the time for each category. You may be surprised! When you keep to a routine, you can better regulate how much time you spend on your daily tasks. However, if you like variety in your life, periodically look at the things you’ve accomplished and determine whether you’ve allotted the right amount of time to them. If not, adjust.
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u KEEP A TO-DO LIST AND SET PRIORITIES Respond productively to the tasks that await you by doing these things: 1. Each day, write down what you want to get done. 2. Rank your tasks by their level of importance: 1 – most important (can’t wait); 2 – somewhat important (can wait but may hold things up); and 3 – of little importance (can be delayed). 3. Cross off tasks as you do them, beginning with those of highest priority. 4. At the end of your business day, put any tasks you didn’t finish—or didn’t have a chance to start—on the to-do list for the next day. List them as top priority. It may be helpful to keep three lists: monthly, weekly, and daily. Then you’ve got a constant reminder of what needs to be done immediately and in the near future. u ORGANIZE YOUR SURROUNDINGS The better organized you are, the more productive you’ll be. When you keep an organized store, office, stockroom, and warehouse, you know where things are, and you can quickly and easily get to them. You save yourself the time of fumbling through a pile of unsorted papers looking for that important catalog. Keeping your space organized tends to keep you more organized. To a degree, your surroundings shape your habits. Give everything its place, and always return things to where they belong immediately after you’re finished with them. When you receive invoices, either pay them or file them right away. And don’t let your emails stack up, either. Read and respond the same day, if possible. But let’s get real. Some days, it’s just impossible to deal with all the paperwork, 100
emails, and Facebook messages. In that case, arrange them by priority and designate a to-read section on your computer and your desk. Then make sure to attend to what’s in the folder or pile at least a couple of times a week. u DON’T PUT THINGS OFF Even though we all do it, try not to fall victim to procrastination. Head if off before it hits you. Be aware of how and why you want to put things off. • Does the task seem too large to handle? If so, break it down into smaller jobs and delegate some of them. • Are you afraid of failure? Often, you can diffuse the fear by discussing the project with a partner, business consultant, spouse, or friend. • Have you already put the task off too long that the pressure of a deadline locks you into inaction? Well, act! You’ll suffer more by not doing anything about it. • Do you find the task too boring and find that your procrastination comes down to simple laziness? Pick yourself up and do it anyway (if you can’t delegate it). • Do you imagine the tasks will take too long? Once you break down how long a task really takes, you’ll probably find that you most likely do have the time for it, and you’ll be more motivated to dive in. Things get worse when you postpone action. Being aware of this can be a great motivator to overcome procrastination. Giving yourself positive reinforcement after doing a task can also help to outwit the tendency to avoid that task. Promise yourself a special coffee drink, a bouquet of flowers, or a dinner out after you’ve accomplished what you know you should do—and are glad you did—during the day. Even with self-administered rewards, there’s no easy way around procrastination. Unless you move right through the middle of a dreaded task, it’s not going to disappear. The more time you spend fighting it, the less time you have for other things.
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Things get worse when you postpone action. Being aware of this can be a great motivator to overcome procrastination. Giving yourself positive reinforcement after doing a task can also help to outwit the tendency to avoid that task. u DELEGATE, DELEGATE, DELEGATE Just because you’re the owner or manager of your framing shop doesn’t mean you have to do everything yourself. If you have quality people on staff—people you can depend on to do their jobs well—you’re better equipped to delegate tasks to them. Whether or not you delegate well, there’s probably at least one more thing you could turn over to someone else, thereby giving yourself more time. Granted, it may not be so easy to let go and give someone else responsibility for something you’re accustomed to handling yourself. It may take you a while to get used to the idea of delegating. The easiest way may be to have so many things to do that you finally realize you’re paying people to sit around while you work 12 hours a day. Successful framing-store owners know how to delegate effectively. If you can give anything on your to-do list to someone else, do it. u PACE YOURSELF Retailers who are successful know how to avoid excessive overtime for themselves and how to balance work with family, friends, and fun. So take on only as much work at your framing shop as you can realistically handle. Know when to say no to yourself and others. Saying no can also mean saying yes to time for yourself. Try getting up earlier in the morning and spending a couple of solitary hours at your business without the distraction of employees, customers, and a ringing phone. Then, make sure you shave off a couple of hours at the end of the day, so you can spend time with people you enjoy, play a little golf, or work in your garden.
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When you balance work with recreation, you’ll likely produce more during the hours you spend at your business. u CONTROL YOUR MEETINGS People spend—and, too often, waste—lots of time in unproductive meetings. To assure yourself more efficient ones, consider the following: • Schedule your staff meetings. The spontaneous meeting on the spot can be productive, but don’t count on it. Avoid drop-ins by refusing to see employees right then. Instead, schedule a meeting time with them. When you plan meetings and stick to the allotted time, you can better control the meetings’ content and length. • Come prepared. Write an agenda for the meeting and email it to employees beforehand. Plan ahead for what needs to be discussed and address the most important items first. • Limit meeting time. Give each agenda item, as well as the whole meeting, an allotted time and stick within that time. • Know how to end a meeting. Give a five-minute warning or, when you decide time is up, simply stand up, signaling that the meeting is over. u MAKE TIME TO VALUE YOUR LIFE Time is what you make of it. Time management never works if you try to accomplish too much too fast. Instead, go for quality in your minutes, hours, and days. If you’ve managed your time reasonably well and you’ve set out and done the things you want to do concerning your business, then you’ll have more time to do the things you value and cherish outside the business. Only then can you make the most of your framing business—and your life.® Claire Sykes is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. Her business management articles appear in dozens of retail trade publications. She also writes about graphic design, photography, the visual arts and music, health and wellness, and many other topics.
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HISTORY OF PICTURE FRAMES SERIES: PART I
From Ancient Egypt to 17th Century France BY LYNN ROBERTS
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Picture frames can be beautiful, functional, and historically interesting objects, but have you ever wondered about their origins? Rooted in twodimensional art, picture frames began as flat borders on walls, urns, or any decorative item requiring a margin to separate one space from another. More than 4,000 years ago, Egyptian wall paintings were using lines and, later, geometric ornaments to articulate scenes, but frames as we now know them came much later. The forebears of modern carved wooden frames appeared around the 11th century. Painted altars like decorated boxes with raised, ornamental protective edges later gave way to framed paintings on top of the altar, and these eventually became more vertical, like a church in silhouette. Duccio di Buoninsegna’s Rucellai Madonna, painted in 1285, is a good example. During the 14th and early 15th centuries, patrons, artists, and woodcarvers exploited this likeness to a church, making the frames into the cross-sections of great Gothic cathedrals. These frames symbolized the Celestial Church, and showed scenes of Christ and the saints as if they were visions appearing in the naves, aisles, crypts, and towers of the cathedral. These paintings with multiple panels (polyptychs) were so large and complex that, like buildings, they required buttresses to support them. The craftsmen who produced them were deemed equal in status to the painters. ••• During the Italian Renaissance, classical influences diffused through architecture, and Greco-Roman temples replaced Gothic altarpieces with their pointed arches, finials, and gilding. Single
LEFT: Lorenzo di Niccolò, “The Coronation of the Virgin,” made for San Marco, Florence, in 1402, and now in San Domenico, Cortona, in its aedicular Gothic frame SPRING 2016 EDITION
Above: Domenico Ghirlandaio, “Adoration of the Shepherds,” 1485, Santa Trinità, Florence, in an aedicular Renaissance frame rectangles also replaced the polyptychs. The rectangle, or quadro, was a painted scene in which the saints and divine figures seemed to be interacting in a realistic space (the sacra conversazione or sacred conversation). The temple-like, or aedicular, frame functioned as a classical door or window opening onto these scenes, giving worshippers the sensation of looking through it to a sacred event that was occurring before their eyes. The frames were also removable, and no longer part of one integrated structure. They were decorated with various embellishments: carved ornament; parcel-gilding and painting; sgraffito, patterns scratched through gilding to the paint layer beneath; engraved or punched designs; raised motifs painted with liquid gesso; and moulded decoration. Again, the craftsmen were highly regarded, and some, including Giuliano da Maiano, Antonio Manetti, and Giuliano and Antonio Giamberti San Gallo, were well-known architects. Some altarpieces had inner borders of carved ornaments, and these, along with the frames of small sacred paintings, influenced the appearance of symmetrical frames for secular works. Portraits and history paintings acquired movable frames such as those that we recognize today. One of the earliest and most enduring frame styles was the cassetta, or little box. It comprises an outer or top
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LEFT: Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen, “Cornelia Schade,” 1654, Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede, in its Netherlandish Auricular frame, one of a pair
moulding, which over the years became increasingly complex; a flat or convex frieze, which could have many kinds of decoration; and another moulding at the inner, or sight, edge. Just as every country produced variants of the Gothic and Renaissance altarpiece, every country also developed versions of the cassetta frame. ••• During the 16th century, artists and architects such as Michelangelo began to play with the proportions of objects and the balance and harmony of compositions. This trend, which became known as Mannerism, originated as a reaction to the harmonious classicism and the idealized naturalism of High Renaissance art in the late 15th century. Mannerist architects, designers, and carvers produced distinctive patterns of picture frames. In Italy, for example, such frames distorted classical motifs, piling them together and elongating structural lines; they used exaggerated 3D ornaments and contrasting colors, such as those displayed in the flamboyantly scrolling “Sansovino” frame. In contrast, British Mannerism developed flattened, curvaceous, and gilded “leatherwork” frames, with curling foliage and highly stylized marine ornaments, such as the “Sunderland” style. The pattern takes its name from the second earl of Sunderland, of Althorp House in Northamptonshire, where the collection of 17th century portraits is framed mainly in this style, though the term itself is probably a 19th century one. 104
Netherlandish Mannerism is another variation. Frames in this style are known as “Auricular,” after the earlike cartilaginous motifs, which may relate to British leatherwork frames and to contemporary Dutch interests in anatomical studies and marine symbolism. Auricular ornament seems to have been developed primarily in the court of Rudolph II of Bohemia, the Holy Roman Emperor, to which artists and craftsmen were drawn to work and exchange ideas. Among them was Paulus Van Vianen, a Dutch silversmith. His work in silver influenced both his brother Adam and his nephew Christiaen. The melting and fluid qualities of these auricular ornaments, which were perhaps easier to achieve in metal than in wood, have a strikingly illusionistic effect when imitated on picture frames, reflecting the great skill of the master carvers who made them. Along with these elaborate and idiosyncratic patterns, carvers also produced much plainer frames, including simple cassetta styles, which might be painted in one color, gilded without other ornament, or made of a decorative wood that could be polished. Italian framemakers usually used native walnut, a wood that darkens to a warm brown and complements paintings. In the 17th century, however, trade with New World colonies introduced to Europe a variety of more exotic woods, including ebony, amboyna, and rosewood, and materials such as tortoiseshell and ivory. Amsterdam in 1606 had only one sawmill; by the mid-17th century, however, there were more than 50, and the offcuts supplied the picture-frame trade.
Right: Guido Reni, “Bacchus and Ariadne,” 1619-20, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in Italian Baroque bolection frame D E CO R M AG A Z I N E .CO M
The melting and fluid qualities of these auricular ornaments, which were perhaps easier to achieve in metal than in wood, have a strikingly illusionistic effect when imitated on picture frames, reflecting the great skill of the master carvers who made them. Cabinetmakers rather than carvers produced these frames, along with furniture, and made them with plain mouldings like those on cupboard doors or decorated them with the first machinecarved ripple and wave mouldings. ••• The organic, natural motifs which had begun to appear in some Mannerist frames gradually took precedence over classical and architectural ornaments, and the mouldings of frames became increasingly theatrical and sculptural, characteristic of the Baroque style. Baroque architecture uses light and shadow to sculpt the façades of buildings, using bays, columns, and niches that are stepped outward or recede. Baroque frames work in the same way, using combinations of boldly projecting convex mouldings beside deep concave mouldings, or scotias. The popular bolection profile raises the picture surface out from the wall, with the frame sloping backward from it, focusing on the painting within by pushing it toward the spectator, and highlighting it against the opulent interiors of the Baroque age. The designers of Baroque frames tended to concentrate the decorative emphasis of the frame on the corners, and often the centers, drawing an imaginary web of optical lines in the minds of spectators and thus reinforcing mass and line in the composition of the painting. This trend is evident in 17th century Spanish frames, which feature panels of fluidly carved, large curling leaves, along with polychrome finishes with gilded patterns like brocaded fabrics. Contemporary French frames also mimic the dramatic profiles of Baroque architecture, with leaf ornaments following the contour of the frame, and frequently highlighting its corners and centers as well. During the 17th century, Paris increased in power and influence as an artistic center, and the work of French craftsmen increased correspondingly in SPRING 2016 EDITION
Above: Velasquez, “Don Pedro de Barberana,” 1631-1633, Kimbell Art Museum, in Spanish Baroque polychrome frame sophistication and skill. Frames produced during the reign of Louis XIII combine bold convex, concave, and ogee mouldings with garlands of bunched bay leaves and oak leaves, undulating vines, or acanthus leaves lapping across the width of the rail, all carved in exquisite and detailed naturalism. This produced an effect of contained richness which complemented the art of the period—now the art of kings, rather than the art of the Church. ® Lynn Roberts is a picture frame historian who has worked as archivist, researcher, and author at Paul Mitchell Ltd. and for the frame section of the National Portrait Gallery website. She is now an occasional archivist at the National Gallery, London. She also founded, runs, and edits the online magazine The Frame Blog. theframeblog.com 105
Seattle’s Young
FRAMING TALENT HILLARY GORE IS A ONE-WOMAN OPERATION AT LUCKY RABBET IN SEATTLE By Elise Linscott
Hillary Gore is only 32, but she’s worked in matting and framing for more than half her life. Framing is the only career she’s ever had, and she is the proud owner of her own frame shop, Lucky Rabbet Custom Framing & Artistry, which she opened three years ago in the Columbia City neighborhood of Seattle. There are dozens of frame shops in the city, but a few aspects of Gore’s business make it stand out. For one thing, Gore runs the whole operation by herself, in the loft of Columbia City Gallery, an artist-run cooperative gallery. “I do all the things from website management to bookkeeping to all of the production and assembly, carpentry, 106
everything,” she says. “I’ve learned through trial and error.” Many of her core business practices, including an emphasis on customer service and investment in repeat customers, came from Gore’s grandparents, who were also small-business owners. Keeping the Lucky Rabbet a one-woman operation helps Gore stay competitive and keep overhead costs low. Those principles, paired with a fine-arts degree that gives Gore a true understanding of all the possibilities and limitations of framing, have made her tiny shop a success in the neighborhood. “I was a huge art nerd in high school,” Gore says. “I was a member
of the National Art Honor Society. It was like art club on steroids. I started cutting all the mats for our local and regional art exhibitions, and I enjoyed it. When I turned 15 and wanted to get a part-time job, my dad thought it would be a good idea for me to do something relative to the field I was interested in, so I started working at Michaels.” In the following years, Gore worked at a few different frame shops near her hometown in Georgia, and she began to learn the industry. She also discovered a family tie; one of her frame-shop bosses in Atlanta used to work for her great-uncle in his frame shop a few decades earlier. D E CO R M AG A Z I N E .CO M
“I want to run this business like things were run in the ’50s. I want to develop a relationship with my customers; I want to make sure they’re fully informed about anything they’re buying from me.” Gore says her family has been influential in the formation of her business practices and philosophies. “There’s a big family identity associated with appropriate customer service and SPRING 2016 EDITION
doing things the old-fashioned way—thecustomer-is-always-right kind of thing,” Gore says. “I want to run this business like things were run in the ’50s. I want to develop a relationship with my customers; I want to make sure they’re fully informed about anything they’re buying from me. I want to invest in repeat business rather than a single sale. Basing business [on] mutual respect is something you don’t see much these days, especially with millennials. I’m in that age group, and I hope I represent that it’s not a wholly lost cause.” Gore has a sense of humor and is friendly and warm, but her passion comes through when she talks about her business and her love of art. She’s
also humble—not a whiff of bragging or boasting as she discusses her business and background. Making sure each customer leaves happy and informed is her top priority, and her fine-arts and printmaking education gives her a great understanding of art, as well as a great respect for the work. She never wants to frame a piece in a way that undermines the artist’s intent. She also does amateur dissection work, figuring out the makeup of a piece and what media were used. For example, some customers will bring in a painting thinking it’s oil when it’s actually a watercolor, or they might mistake an acrylic for an oil painting. 107
“I like being able to educate people what I’m going to do with the work is not and make sure it lasts as long as possible.” about how things are assembled and what a mystery,” she says. “Being able to do all Gore recommends the archival the medium is they’re working with,” the work from start to finish gives me approach to framing to ensure that the Gore says. “Being able to figure out if the ability to be completely informed and artwork will last and can be brought back it’s an acrylic or oil on canvas to its original state, and to guaraffords me a little bit of extra “I like being able to educate people antee that the customer has to information. A lot of framers about how things are assembled and frame the piece only once. have an art background, but “The frame doesn’t care what the medium is they’re working many of them are more limited what goes in it; you could put in what their field of study was. with. Being able to figure out if it’s an cardboard and Plexiglas in acrylic or oil on canvas affords me a there as far as it’s concerned,” I’m a little bit more of a renaissance lady as far as that goes. I Gore explains. “It’s still going to little bit of extra information.” have experience with sculpture, be a $300 frame. If you spend printmaking; pretty much every medium to share that information with the cus- another $40 on the glass and another I’ve had my hands on once or twice.” tomer. Especially with artwork, even if it $10 on foam core, the frame is now $350 Gore also tells the customer exactly is replaceable, even if it it’s not a piece of and will last as long as you’re alive. It’s what can or cannot be done. fine art … it’s still important enough to not a huge [financial] impact. Usually, “Any information they want about you to spend the money to treat it well when I’m quoting prices, I’ll default to all
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D E CO R M AG A Z I N E .CO M
archival materials. If we want to [move] back from there, we can, but at least for pricing things out, we’re assuming we want it to last.” For Gore, Lucky Rabbet is a sixday-a-week operation, but she reserves Sundays for spending time with friends and family—one of the benefits of owning your own business, she says. Her shop is open Wednesday through Saturday; she reserves Mondays for bookkeeping and Tuesdays for labor. The items Gore has framed run the gamut. Some of her favorite have been 3D, requiring shadowboxes. “Shadowboxes are usually the most interesting because you’re getting physical artifacts,” Gore says. “Right now, I’m
SPRING 2016 EDITION
working on a piece for a new customer—a shadowbox of a pair of vintage silk panties. I’ve also done locks of hair, jerseys, kids’ art—the list goes on and on.” Gore doesn’t spend any money on advertising. A sandwich-board sign sits out front, and a label hangs on the gallery door, but most customers find her business through Google and Yelp. Gore may someday hire another young framer like herself. She would prefer to hire someone young so she can train that person to frame the way she thinks is best. But her life has a few moving pieces at the moment; for one, she’s getting married this summer, so she’s holding off on hiring another employee just yet. One other aspect of Gore’s business
that she’s fiercely passionate about is its location. Gore loves her Columbia City neighborhood, where she’s lived since she first moved to Seattle six years ago. She’s gotten to know other local business owners and residents by spending time in the cafés and restaurants. She’ll even modify her trip home to deliver finished work to customers if they’re close by. “It’s my little home here,” she says. ® Elise Linscott is a freelance journalist based in Seattle. A Massachusetts native and Western New England University Grab, Linscott previously worked as a staff reporter for a newspaper, and she loves getting outdoors, meeting new people, and exploring.
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Sócrates Márquez
“Too Bubbly to be Blue” – Mixed Media - 84” x 54” - 2015 - Detail
@socratesmarquez Facebook: socratesmarquezny Top Emerging Artist 2014 – Art Business News
info@socratesmarquez.com www.socratesmarquez.com
ADVERTISER INDEX ADVERTISER
PAGE
Adam Tramantano
52
Japanese Scroll Paintings
11
Agnese Melbarde
53
Jim Keller
88
Amber Grise
19
Jonathan Brender
51
Art2D 53
Kristina Chkhan
13
Artblend 9
The Laffer Gallery
7
Art by Ancizar
45
Larissa Romanova
17
Art Design Consultants
20
Lena Medeiros
52
ArtTour International
18
Liane Chu
10
Atelier Ball
35
Lysakov Art Company
Barton Studios
23
Mary Johnston
Bessette Studios
43
Michael Joseph
8
Bettie Grace Miner
35
Mina Mokhtarzadeh
7
The Blue Azul Collection
83
Nonos Gallery
Brian Rock
84
OK Seo
Carini Arts
3
Chris Kihlstrom
90
Claudia Ramos
6
Danielle Taylor Diana Cummings Art
89 7
2 22
86, IBC IFC
Palette Art
27
Purple Barn Studios
41
Ralph Benedict Ceramic Design Redwood Media Group
6 46, 82
Riya Sharma
29
Dinett Hok Gallery of Fine Art
14
Robin Swennes
28
Dominique Riviere
90
Roda Padilla
89
Eastern Culture Corp/Hua Yuan
42
Rusudan Khizanishvili
22
Elizabeth Dunlop Studios
88
Sergey Mozer
12
ENitsua Fine Art
16
Sheetal Shaw
35
Fabian Perez Studios
4
Shewmaker Sculpture
87
Fine Art Maya
1
Smart Publishing
30 110
Francesca Saveri
88
Socrates Marquez
Frandy Jean Gallery
15
Souren Mousavi
85
Gallery NK
52
The Susan N. McCollough Gallery and Studio
36
Turnbull Studios
50
Wolfeyes Creative
22
Graphix Integrated
6
Gryphon Fabricators
BC
H. Allen Benowitz
37
“Take off your shoes and wash your hands,” Subodh Gupta
111
PARTING SHOT
“Southern Light,” Kelly Fischer
This acrylic on canvas painting comes from the “Scaffolding II” series by Swiss artist Kelly Fischer. “There is a deeper concentration devoted to smoothing over the rough edges and to beautify,” says Fischer of the series. “By combining colors that represent both the Northern Lights and Southern Lights, my intention is to present artwork that offers an entrancing, dramatic, and magical display that fascinates.” Fischer is represented by Contemporary Art Projects USA, and her work can be seen at Spectrum Indian Wells in March. For more information about Fischer and her art, contact info@contemporaryartprojectsusa.com.
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SPRING 2016
NONOS pure joy of life
Design made in Austria. With their NONOS the two sisters and artists Mercedes and Franziska Welte have created a unique brand. Their sculptures combine pure joie de vivre with aesthetic forms, dynamic dance and evxtravagant sensuality. The vibrant and elegant NONOS are known to design aficionados all over the world. The list of international exhibitions contains places like Berlin, New York, Shanghai, Malta or Vienna as well as Florida and even Taipei. In Europa the handmade unique items are highly valued. See more of NONOS at nonos.at