When Life Gives You Lemons, Frame Them!

I began my day yesterday determined 1) I was not going to lose any appendages and 2) that when I left the shop I would be able to measure and cut moulding, join it, measure and cut mat and glass and fit them all together in a final product.  And that's just exactly what I did. 

First off, I am typing with all 10 digits.  I was not the victim of chopper molestation, thankfully.  Every time I put a piece of moulding on the beast, I thought "don't put your fingers by the blades, don't put your fingers by the blades", in a Rainman-esque fashion but without all the nodding.  I listened to myself, and all turned out well for my hands. 

The first frame I made was crooked, and that is a kind description.  I forced it together.  It looked entirely pathetic.  I couldn't show it to Owner because it was too awful.  That said, I didn't throw it away.  In fact, I intend to keep it on my desk as a reminder of where I started.  Perhaps it can be a sort of talisman for good framing.  For a bit I studied the sad little lopsided frame for clues on where I went wrong, what I could do to improve.  I made mental notes that went something like this:  learn how to use a ruler!  Measure twice, cut once.  It's embarrassing to admit, I think I measured about five times, and I still got it wrong.  Oh well, it is practice, right? 

For my second attempt at frame-making, I chose a different moulding from the stash of rejects Owner had set out for my practice.  This time I measured and cut properly.  Relief.  It was the joining of the pieces where I went awry.  In the joining process the moulding is held together at the corners via an underpinning method.  Important Note:  One cannot see where the pin is going in on the moulding since it is, you got it, underpinned.  Now that seems fairly obvious and simple, I agree; however, I managed to, not once, not twice, BUT three times completely miss the moulding when trying to join it.  The concept of "under" seemed to be foreign to me.  On the fourth attempt, I was golden.  After a slow start (read slow as in pace of the work and operation of the brain) I pinned three corners in a flash like I had been doing this my whole life.  But as is often the case for those who get a little too big for their britches a little too quickly, on corner four I blew it.  I was crusin along, feeling all good and thinking, "yep, I've got this, I'm just bangin out some frames.  Pretty much frame-maker", and then it happened.  Erupting through the moulding came one of the joining pins.  Yes, it popped right out on top for the world to see.  Frame ruined or rurnt if you prefer.

By frame three, I really did have it down.  I cut it, joined it and cleaned it up, and that frame went on the sale table.  Naturally, I thought it should be about a $100 item because, well, it was my first good frame and it was gold, so you can imagine my surprise when Owner wrote a big red $9 on the back, and it's half-off of that.  Ok, I knew it wasn't a $100 frame since it was 5"x5", but a guy can dream.

I continued the day waiting on customers, taking orders, doing the regular FramerGuy stuff and I was making frames when I had the time.  After we closed, I was ready to see if I could do it all, start to finish.  I picked an item to frame, selected a mat, decided on a frame and set to work.  While I still have a bit of anxiety about being becoming an expert framer, I feel encouraged.  One day after deciding that I had to get this figured out, I did it.  So here it is, my first framed piece which I did in the words of Eric Carmen, "all by myself".  Not bad lemonade from where I'm sitting.