No it's not a joke but what I thought was an interesting question that I recently asked a customer when they bought in a portfolio of photographs from an expedition to India. The photographs were taken while the customer and his wife travelled around India in a 1936 Rolls Royce. Possibly not the easiest vehicle to drive around India however the advantages of being able to open all the windows including the front windscreen does become very appealing! This is just one of the images that was framed with kind permission from Mr. Rupert Grey.

 The same image in black and white subsequently framed:

A simply stunning image but the most interesting question remains......how did they get that car on there? For a teaser video follow this link. For some other amazing images from the expedition follow this link. A wonderful trip I am sure with some beautiful images. A real pleasure! 

It is fairly difficult to introduce coloured framing materials to black and white images. It can be done especially if the framing is selected with a room's decor in mind and the pictures to be framed are creating a theme in a given room. However it isn't the norm and hence grey is a colour that we often use for framing monochromatic pictures. Perhaps surprisingly, monochromatic pictures are often the most difficult of pictures to frame as it is all about matching the grey tones within a picture. So we have just introduced a selection of mouldings to give a wider choice with regards to the shade of grey. It isn't quite 50 shades but these mouldings have been very useful, especially with lighter pencil drawings where the more subtle shades are effective. The extreme colours of either black or white could have been selected but these can be too eye catching (especially black) and could dominate the picture.

The mouldings also have a larger and a smaller profile for some of the selection which is always useful for several pictures of similar colour but varying size.

No not the name of the next Spielberg movie in the series but an interesting item to frame here at the Petersfield Framing Studios. A gentleman contacted me about an item he wanted to frame that was rather unusual. A dinosaur footprint. "Unusual" is pretty standard for us I am glad to say so away we went. The footprint was of aMegalosaurus which apparently walked around during the mid-jurassic period. The footprint was discovered in the mudstone of Oxfordshire and then the footprint was cast in fiberglass.

 However it was felt the colour of the background needed to be changed so our neighbour Dub Works (who specialise in VW restorations) sprayed the footprint a different colour for the customer. 

 Once the paint dried we could frame the footprint in a suitably deep enough frame painted a suitable Jurassic green and the picture was ready to hang. 

The item on the left hand side of the above photo is a metre stick to give an idea of the size of the dinosaur. Estimates put the Megalosaurus at around 9 metres long. Glad we didn't have to frame the rest of it! 

Planning a framed surprise for Christmas or a special occasion? A perfect idea and we love surprises. Picture framing a loved one's favourite piece of art and keeping it a surprise is a brilliant idea and often makes one of the best presents. I have been (and are currently!) involved in framing many surprises for people and have been involved in many subtle methods of keeping secrets for customer's surprises. This has even involved sneaking into customer's gardens and leaving a framed item in their shed. I wish that customer had remembered to take their dog indoors. I'm still not sure who was the most surprised! However the important thing was the surprise was still kept for the customer. What is also important is to let me know it is a surprise for someone in your household as I will contact you when the framing is ready and I do not want to give away any surprise. This may involve us leaving a message on an answerphone or e-mail so please make sure you let me know how I can communicate with you without giving the game awayand keep your surprise presents a surprise.

A question we are often asked and it really depends on the type of picture to be framed and whether the picture requires glass. This is probably one of the most important factors due to the strength needed in the frame if glass is required. We have framed quite a few large pictures in the past (a very large brass rubbing and a 6 foot long papyrus  to give a couple of examples) and one of the main things to consider is how you might get the framed picture back to your home? This can be easily overlooked when you bring the picture into our workshop in a tube. We do offer a delivery service for the bigger pictures but this will be an added cost to take in to consideration. Also it may be worth considering how you intend to hang the picture once it is framed? If it is really large it may be best to screw the frame to the wall. This may mean that the fittings will show on the bottom and the top of the frame. One of the main limiting factors with picture size will be the length of the moulding. Most moulding will arrive in at least 2.4 metre or 8 foot lengths. This in theory allows for at least an 8 foot square picture. However this may become an issue with getting the framed picture out of our workshop let alone onto your wall! All things to consider and also issues that we are very familiar with. Here is a recent example of a very large photo of the Grand Canal entrance in Venice. 

To act as a guide to size I photographed this with a doorway behind for scale. A bit of a whopper for sure! Also an amazing piece of stitched photography and a wonderful view. 

It may sound a little cliché but the "wow" factor is definitely something we are looking for as an initial comment from our customers when they collect their framing. This is something that we are particularly interested in hearing when re-framing works of art. Recently a customer bought in a picture they had had framed and then re-framed but were still not happy with how it looked on the wall. The customer had kept their original first choice of frame as the second frame was considered worse than the first and they were thinking about putting the artwork back into the original frame. This was definitely a option and could have worked. However let's not forget the customer wasn't happy in the first place!  Hence we took a little more time than usual to ensure that the choice of framing with us was more likely to be a success. The first word that the customer said as we presented the finished frame? Well, you can probably guess. However if you have had something framed and your original reaction was something less than wow, perhaps you might like to pop along to our workshop to see if we can help restore the wow factor to your walls.

I am inspired to write this article about pieces of art that you may well have at home or work and haven't got around to framing them. I am talking about the things in draws "for safe keeping" or items under the bed or on top of the wardrobe to "keep them flat". Customers often come in to my workshop and say that they feel bad as they have had this piece of art lying around "for ages." Ages is extremely subjective period of time as it can mean a couple of weeks, since last Christmas or sometimes it can be years. A recent customer has just set the new record for putting things in draws off to frame, that record is now 69 years! The customer had a set of felt slippers framed which she remembers were in her Mother's bedside draw in 1948 and she always meant to frame them but never got around to it. What a pity to have something so amazing tucked away for safe keeping and to never enjoy the beauty of such a sentimentally valuable item on their wall. You cannot really appreciate something in a draw or on top of a wardrobe. I would say get it framed so you can share the precious memory with others. Also framing will help to protect the item for years to come. So there you go, the current record for putting off picture framing is set at 69 years. Can you beat that??

How long does it take to drive through 48 state capitals of the U.S.A.? This was a question that a customer recently asked themselves and produced a map charting their amazing journey. The customer's plan changed unexpectedly for a holiday in U.S.A. and so they decided to something "different for a change." They flew out to the West coast and started in California and drove up and down through the 48 states taking in the state capital whilst travelling through each state. A heck of a lot of driving but they managed to achieve this amazing feat in 23 days. A real whistle-stop tour! The customer bought a map of the USA and drew their route with a permanent red marker and then used a red frame with silver inner bevel for effect. 

As the uniqueness of this map required an explanation, a text aperture was cut into the mount to read thus:

A pretty amazing trip and it all came about from a last minute idea. Excellent! Plus having the map framed really shares the great experience with your friends and family. We have talked about maps here quite a few times on this blog but they really do make a great talking point in your home. So......have you been on any amazing trips lately?? If so, get a map, get it suitably framed and share your travels. 

Scouting For Girls are a great group. A customer recently treated his wife to tickets to see Scouting For Girls and also bought a poster, a bag, a signed CD and some badges. We decided to set the montage out like this:

Some of the items are quite deep and needed a box frame to keep the glass away from the items. A black background and a white frame were the preferred choice of materials:

The flat items such as the poster, the CD cover and the tickets always look better with openings in the mountboard so that the white bevel makes the items stand out. 

The bag was the trickiest part of the job as the handles were very long and if fully extended would have made the resulting picture frame huge. So I decided to fold the handles around the back of the bag but so that it still looks like a bag. 

The finished montage looks really effective, especially with a white frame to provide contrast to the black background. 

In case you are wondering which songs Scouting For Girls recorded, do the words "She's so lovely" help? (Don't worry, I had to look it up too!)

The Battle of Britain 75th Anniversary fly past at Goodwood was an amazing gathering of planes involved in the Battle of Britain and was an incredible event to attend back in 2015. A customer recently decided to frame a selection of photographs taken at the event. The lady at the top of the montage is the customer's Mother. There were many more photos than this to begin with so the customer chose this selection of nine photos to be arranged around a poster of planes that flew during the Battle of Britain. A simple off white colour mount to be combined with a 20mm grey / charcoal profile was chosen for the mount and frame.

 A caption was added to be positioned at the base of the mount to read: "Take off from Westhampnett for Battle of Britain 75th Anniversary 15th Sept 2015"

As with every multiple aperture project, a plan is a must:

 Hopefully everything adds up to achieve the outside size of the frame.....!

Once the mount was cut out the layout looks like this:

 All the photos and the poster were dry mounted onto thicker card so that they do not cockle up over time with temperature and humidity changes in the final hanging position. 

Add the frame and glass and viola, or rather Tally Ho! 

A really impressive looking montage for an amazing gathering. Probably the last time so many Spitfires and Hurricanes would be in the same place and time and actually flew as well. As a child I often made the Hurricane Airfix model and I am still completely in awe of the Battle of Britain planes whenever I am lucky enough to hear them fly overhead. We are particularly lucky living near to Goodwood aerodrome as the twin seater Spitfire often flies over. A very distinctive sound indeed.