Framing Coordinates
Traditional values in the frame have gone, the old perfections are no longer wanted as they controlled the image values .

Once, the frame was part of a religious festival of exhibitionist gilt showmanship .. The extreme coordination of carver sculptor and carpenter have been rejected now, and the artist has taken back the reins  but even now the customer considers their part and wants it framed as they say  and to his or her  taste is just like the framers of old wanting power over the painter as if they only know the way to present that work . Framers are trapped between the two.
As a painter and a framer I now can make my own decisions, Recently I sold something of mine I had framed in a crude wooden frame to suit and the customer went to great expense to reframe it and it now looks like something that I didn't paint..

Spending most of my life framing art I have seen the changes take place over the use of surrounds . The traditional mouldings have all been lost for a flat wood  , mainly due I think from the influence of museum style framing to save costs. The increased value in art over the years also encouraged long term conservation,  basic framing  ...  but the fashion took a bad turn for a framer in my opinion, leaving them with little to work with apart from standard flat wood . These days it's becoming less of a regime and people are drifting back to shaped woods. no longer tramlined by conservators or dedicated modernists.  The uses of traditional shapes are infinite, depending on the skill of a framer .Its extremely easy to over frame a painting and its a double act involving customer and framer and hard to advise a forceful customer but our reputation is ruined by bad framing so sometimes we have to say no  . The customers rarely know how to frame a painting  and they rely mostly on a framer's skills and knowledge, but in reality we know little of that person and their tastes, just the artwork.  We try to determine the period it represents more than where its hanging . Contemporary framing is simple and is a different ball game . The beauty is in simplicity , without a frame almost preferable in some cases , I have made many perspex boxes.. I try to liken modern framing to the 1940s when imports were unavailable so artists used their own skills and paint to make the battens ..

What you see below is just one style based on Pasmore , its one of the thousands of frame designs  I have made,..  everyone individual and different from the one before ..Framing is a craft, but has an art side also that most people do not recognize .