LJ Idol and Framing - Closing the Shop Meant Making Some Decisions

I'm not a quitter, and I love a challenge (and a great group of competitors and friends), but I'm pulling out of LJ Idol effective immediately. With our trying to close the store this year, and the amount of sheer hours I'm having to put into the shop to make this happen, I simply don't have the time to write a quality piece for submission. I refuse to post anything but my best. So, my post for this week was my withdrawal notification, and I'm quite sad about that on the one hand, and a bit relieved on the other. 

I'm both sad and happy at my decision to pull out of 
LJ Idol. I'm sad because I love the challenge of writing 
to Gary's themes (he's EVIL when it comes to his 
theme choices). I'm happy because I simply don't have 
the time for Idol this time around, and I can't feel 
guilty about that - it's purely a fact. 

I spent yesterday doing a bit of cooking, but then turned my eyes to clearing up the den so that I can set up my mat-cutter and get some of the prints that we have at the shop, matted and ready for framing and sale. I have more than 100 pieces that need a mat at the least, and for many of them I've already got the pre-cut framing purchased, just waiting to be assembled. It'll be fun to work with framing again - I was quite good at it when I had my original store and my Mall of America store. 

There are a lot of components that go into framing 
a piece of artwork for sale. Not every piece needs 
glazing, but many do. Not all require multiple 
mats, but they can make a piece extra special. The 
backing board and dust covers are essential. It's 
a multi-layer cake, in essence. 

Like most people, I had started out working with a local framer nearby, but quickly realized that wasn't cost-effective. At that time, Larson-Juhl, one of the major framing manufacturers, started offering framing classes through their Eden Prairie location. I signed up for that - a week of intensive framing lectures and hands-on practice. We then purchased some rather expensive equipment, and I was off and running. In the long run it saved us quite a bit of money - most artwork needs to be framed to look good on a wall, and I had half of the entire front wall of my Mall of America store dedicated to framed artwork for sale. We also had one room in our original St Paul location dedicated to framed artwork for sale. Both places looked great, and we sold a lot of artwork. 

Larson-Juhl is one of the largest frame manufacturers and 
distributors in the nation. They used to have a huge warehouse 
and factory in Eden Prairie, MN - one of the far Western 
suburbs of the Twin Cities. They offered a five-day 
professional framing course and I signed up for it. At that 
time we were just dipping our toes into selling fine art, 
and we hoped that framing it ourselves would
be a massive price saver. 

In our current location, however, display space fights with Navajo weavings and artifacts of various kinds, and our artwork area is quite a bit more limited. Out clientele is different as well. Here, we have become a craft supply store with beads being our major focus, not Native American art and collectibles. The beads pay the rent - we don't sell a lot of artwork, although we have some really great pieces. But I also have print drawers full of original artwork that needs to be framed (or at minimal - matted) before it can be sold. 

I have a top of the line mat cutting machine that I 
purchased at the time I took the class. It can handle 
pretty much any paper materials I feed into it. I 
also purchased a chop saw for wood if I wanted to 
make my own frames. 

So I'll be spending a lot of time with my mat cutter, my glass cutter, my sheet cutter and my various tools. It's going to take me a bit of time to get my hand back into cutting fancy mats and framing, but I always enjoyed it. So, for at least part of my "days off" I'll be working at home on cutting mats and assembling artwork for sale. Some will be framed, others just shrink-wrapped, but they'll all look great. I'll just have to join LJ Idol for their next time because writing, except in my head, is simply time I won't have until after I've locked the doors of Stormcloud for good. 

The other piece of equipment that I own is this - a glass 
and mat cutting machine. We've used it a lot! It's about 
one-two degrees out of true right now, so I'll need to 
do some adjusting. It's also in a difficult place to work with 
larger pieces of glass, so that may become an issue. 

Have an excellent weekend. We'll have thunderstorms on and off throughout the day and maybe into tomorrow. The current storm is passing both North and South of us, and we're in an island of calm, interrupted by rumbles of thunder. The afternoon will be a bit more active - LOL. Be kind, and Slava Ukraini.