The Frame Maker booth at ArtWalk built with new green ECOR™ panels

Even though The Frame Maker doesn’t do trade shows on a regular basis (although we do go to a few), we are still conscious of the amount of sheer waste usually associated with these kind of events as exhibitors, and the last thing we need do in a frame shop is make more waste.

Meeting Robert Noble of Noble Environmental Technologies of La Jolla and his staff this spring was a gift from the heavens in the context of designing a booth for The Frame Maker as part of our sponsorship of this weekend’s Mission Federal ArtWalk.

We didn’t want to make anything that would just get thrown away, and we knew we wouldn’t have much future opportunity to reuse a 20′ x 10′ booth made for displaying art! When Bob and his staff offered to donate some of their revolutionary new ECOR green building panels, (online at www.ecorglobal.com) we were excited at the idea of using recycled materials and also at being able to leverage our presence at ArtWalk to let more people know about what Bob and his staff are doing, not just for the environment, but also for our local San Diego economy.

When we figured out that coupled with the grand format printing technologies of Moebius Color, we could recycle/reuse all of the donated panels after ArtWalk by returning them to ECORglobal for their own future marketing use, we were over the moon about the direction the booth was taking!

Here’s some more info on the ECOR panels first:

ECOR Advanced Environmental Composites

If you can’t imagine all the possibilities this completely recycled product has to offer the art & design world or why its PERFECT for a booth like ours, check out this second piece of literature Bob and his staff have prepared/

ECOR Advance Environmental Composites

We aren’t getting as sophisticated in our booth as the ideas above, but we are very pleased with the solution Pete and Mike from Moebius came up for us. Their machines can image on virtually any surface now, meaning that instead of mounting paper or vinyl more or less permanently to our structural ECOR panels, we’re using a lightweight rigid plastic that is easily installed AND removed from the panels, as well as being removed in such a way that both graphics and panels are preserved for the future.

We’re not sure when we’ll use the image panels again, but storing them becomes easy when the image panels themselves are only a quarter of an inch thick and extremely light. Given that we don’t have to roll/fold/or otherwise package them for storage (the inks are outdoor/UV quality!), it becomes economical both for the environment and the bank account to save them for later.

We’re including one image of our ArtWalk booth panel graphics to show why we’re happy to save them for potential future use:

Come down and see us this weekend at Fir Street and India by the fountain at Piazza Balione. We’ll have real frames and samples from our new green picture framing lines and a preview of our new show at The Frame Maker, “Artists Proof”, morepictures coming to The Frame Maker blogs soon!

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Green Picture Framing Project with ASID Home Tour this weekend

Here is one good example of “green” thinking at The Frame Maker being not just good for the environment, but good for business, too.

Over the last year, The Frame Maker made over two thousand frames for just one of its professional clients. The amount leftover of nice but unusable maple moulding (due to length of leftover vs. lengths required by job) was staggering despite our best attempts to be efficient. Its a dilemma many shops are familiar with: what to do with a thousand ends of prefinished moulding less than 15″ long? (the smallest lengths spec’d on the job).

Instead of the usual two options (dumpster or leave it stashed to gather dust until the next big shop clean-up), we took a new one, and made as many 5×7 promotional frames as possible out of the scrap, resulting in minimal landfill and the perfect gift for the ASID Home Remodel Tour giftbags (coming up next weekend).

Here’s the insert in the frame:

insert for green frame gift

And here’s the info on the ASID tour, click the image to go to ASID site:

ASID home tour

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What’s green about picture framing?

From the desk of John Hiemstra

“When I started working closely with The Frame Maker on this website and developing a forward looking plan of action for the business last year, I began right away on the “green” mission I’ve been carrying along to different degrees since I was a kid.

Having been in and around custom framing since 1990 in San Francisco, I’ve given the “green picture framing” project a lot of thought over the years. Of course the initial response was a mix of laughter and blank stares captured in the flat response, “There is nothing green about the picture framing industry.”

When put that way, of course, I was forced agree. The point I was making was about taking some initiative as a business that was already a leader and authority in its niche, not only to do what’s right for our community an the planet, but also to take advantage of the pop culture swell of all things “green” all around us. In other words, “If people are asking, why don’t we answer them?”

They only thought I was crazy until we began selling some of the green picture frame designs I prototyped and we discovered that “green” was the biggest wave in the hospitality design sector.

If I hadn’t been working on these ideas since the early 90’s, I’d think myself cynical and perhaps opportunistic right now. Rather I see the opportunity to create real change because people are seeking to vote with their dollar on “green” issues, and this is what makes real change possible.”

The next several posts here on The Frame Maker’s Design blog will focus on the changes John has brought to The Frame Maker just as picture framing industry leaders react to the green design movement as well.

The Frame Maker offers the largest selection of green design options available anywhere in custom picture framing, right here in San Diego.

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3 Friends of TFM in April SDHG

The Frame Maker is very pleasantly surprised to see three long time friends and clients of our featured in this month’s (April 2009) issue of San Diego Home| Garden magazine

Full disclosure: you have to find and/or buy a physical copy of the magazine to read the story and see the gorgeous print spread, or look for it at the doctor’s office.

Alternatively, you can check out these creative professionals in their own right, right now, for free:

• Reesey Shaw of Lux Art Institute in Encinitas
• Elizabeth Thiele Barkett of Ross Thiele & Son in La Jolla
• Kristin Lomauro of San Diego

Congratulations, we are proud to serve you!

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Green picture framing for James Brown @ La Jolla Athanaeum

When San Diego architect James Brown approached us about framing for his show “The Third Country/El Tercer Pais” (opening this Thursday April at the Athenaeum in La Jolla), he asked for a simple gallery treatment in a spare natural wood frame. When I asked if he had a lumber preference (from one woodworker to another), Jim threw out that poplar would be his ideal choice.

Now most woodworkers and picture framers doing simple clear finishes (usually wax or a light coat of laquer) or even light to medium stain work will run away screaming from poplar as a material. The wild variations in grain and coloration and can be very challenging to even out and definitely distracting in a picture frame. That said, its a stable, medium density hardwood that when properly dried is stable and load bearing for all kinds of projects– at The Frame Maker we use it for extra sturdy oversize back frames and stretcher bars, i.e. structural frames, not decorative ones.

But Jim has been using poplar for years, especially in his furniture, and sent me this email when I asked him about the poplar (I hadn’t yet seen the drawings yet, nor did I have a clear idea what the show was about).

“I have used poplar in furniture for many years. I like the figuring,
although I have always wished for a secret formula to make it stay green
and not go to brown. Oh well, I like the brown too. There will be some
tables that use poplar in the show, so there is the obvious connection
there. It is easily workable, is stable, holds paint well (although I
would rarely paint it), as you say is ‘managed’, and is pretty cheap.”

Spoken like a true craftsman, concerned with qualities he values, aesthetic appeal, and a good price to boot, all approaches we value here at The Frame Maker.

So what’s the “green design” connection?

Poplar itself is a sustainable wood product, meaning that it is fast growing and reaches the marketplace through managed forestry practices that leave little to no negative impact on the environment or the landscape.

There is a great deal to be learned on this subject in detail through “green” certification agencies like the Forest Stewardship Council, but the ramifications are reasonably clear: in addition to little to no damage being inflicted on the environment, sustainable forestry practices generate stable job situations and communities that don’t dry up when the last tree is gone; rather these communities thrive and grow roots because they are able to bring a perennially needed material (wood) to market reliably season after season.

Okay, if poplar’s so great what about the rest of the frame?

Here is where The Frame Maker’s “act locally” thinking comes into play, because when we buy for some of our larger wholesale and hospitality custom framing projects, the volume at which we buy gives the ability to get “green” products at competitive prices. We also over order so as to save on both unit (lineal foot cost) and shipping costs/energy expended– lots of times, big jobs get an add-on at the end, so if you have a custom run of moulding and no extra, you can have a real hassle on your hands from a large and expectant client!

Overbuying is a great service strategy for big clients, but unusable leftovers can pose a problem. At The Frame Maker, we have a constantly updating sample set of what’s in stock so we can deliver the right stock to the right clients, and this is just what happened with Jim poplar frame request.

We had a leftover stock of custom poplar back frame stock at a full 1″ x 2″, milled for us by our friends at Garret Moulding last year for a huge giclee canvas stretching job, more than two hundred custom oversize pieces for the public areas of a large hospital complex. By milling existing stock into the right profile for Jim’s frames, we saved not only money but time, energy, fuel and new material while providing a truly custom picture frame design exactly to the client’s specifications.

custom milled poplar picture frame moulding

finishing poplar frames

In a similar manner, we identified our enormous stock of white rag mat scrap from the same large job and a small over buy of conservation glass from another hospitality job as sources for Jim’s materials, and through conscientious materials management in the shop, we were able to complete all ten of Jim’s frames without purchasing, shipping or using any new materials except the hardware on the back and the plastic to wrap them safely up.

poplar figure in custom moulding for James Brown

custom picture frames for James Brown

Jim’s show opens at the Athenaeum in La Jolla this Thursday April 2 and runs through May 9, 2009.

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