Frazer, the man behind Moosey, whom I have known and worked with for a few years now, orders his frames in specifically to the sizes of his pieces. However there were two mistakes within the elements he ordered in, with the mountboards being too narrow and a clear vinyl window sticker which had a white background instead of transparent as requested. Because of this framing the works became quite a meticulous process, as traditionally Frazer allows for a 1cm tolerance around the edge of the mount, in this case we were left with only 1-2mm. As each piece had hand torn edges this meant sometimes even gravity was enough to disrupt the alignment of each piece, meaning it had to be reframed. To add to this some of the MDF backing boards had rough edges, causing them to shed small particles of wood fibre. These occasionally worked their way to the front of the art work, spoiling the finish, and requiring them to be again reframed.
I thought that these issues really emphasised the importance of trusted
industry contacts who could be relied upon to work meticulously and
follow instructions correctly. Although it is perhaps unreasonable to expect an art merchant such as this to have the means to create the frames themselves, organising a planned partnership with a known high quality local framer could be mutually beneficial for both.The act of framing itself was quite self explanatory however there were quite a few tricks to speed the process along, and I felt deftness of hand would be the greatest skill here, built through time and practice. Using a wide palette knife made short work of the many metal pegs holding the frame in place, particularly on some of the larger works. Frazer also instructed me to lift the artworks by the mountboard where possible as the paper creased and marked easily. Tiny pieces of masking tape were used to secure the works gently when perectly in place. It was also important to use a microfibre cloth and wipe away any fingerprints.
I also used a wrap roller (see the blue handled tool left) to wrap the edges of each piece in plastic for transport. Frazer asked me to first unpack the unopened frames and prepare them for filling by slashing only the back corners of the wrap, just enough to allow the backboard to be lifted away without the wrap actually coming off. I was pleased to hear he took these extra considerations to minimise packaging wastage, as then these works would only need a single sealing layer of plastic and they would be ready to take to london. Using the wrap roller was unexpectedly complicated, as it was difficult to both rotate the art and the roller in seperate directions quickly and safely however once again with practice I soon felt myself picking up speed and getting the hang of things.
Although the process was complicated by some of the issues I previously mentioned, it was really exciting to prep and package lovely art for an exhibiton, almost like Christmas in reverse, like a team of elves getting ready to bring a good experience to our everyone. (Perhaps also helped along by mounting crates of beer and gin ready to hand out at the launch!) Working in real life artistic situations like this definitely make me appreciate art as my passion and makes me excited to get out there in the real world and start making things happen. I am really looking forward to attending the launch tomorrow also, particularly because I have been quite involved in the journey and growth which has been leading up to Moosey holding it's first ever London exhibition. To have my expenses covered as a true employee of the company for the first time feels like I really am part of the enterprise now.
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