Does every picture paint a thousand words?

There is something magnificent about being a picture framer. From the moment you meet a customer and their art work, you are on a journey of discovery. Often, you find out alot about how the art work came to the customer - be it a momento from a holiday, a programme from a special event that they have been to or an original that they couldn’t help but invest in, every picture tells a story.

Stories come thick and fast in the gallery. No sooner is the picture on the bench for choosing a moulding, than the conversation flows. We have had tears, laughter and giggles aplenty, and no story is ever the same.

Take the lovely one we had only a couple of weeks ago…a letter, thin and fragile, was brought in for framing - the copperplate font told me it was old and on reading it, the language used spoke more and more of it being something museum worthy. Imagine my surprise, then when I read the name of the writer - Florence Nightingale. Now, this sort of thing doesn’t happen every day, as you will know, but it was difficult not to gasp slightly at the enormity of what I had in front of me. That piece is now back with its owner - proudly protected for the future in Museum quality glass and conservation grade mountboard!

Then the t-shirt - threadbare and covered in holes…a present for a 70th Birthday - framed because the owner had so many collective memories wearing it, that it was fun to frame and keep for the future.

Or, the plate, broken and glued back together, but a memory of a 3 year old who is a fast growing up!

How about the photograph of a lost relative, who is loved beyond measure?

Every single picture is a story - a thousand words, so the song goes…absolutely!