2012 sees a year-long celebration of the nation’s cultural and creative strengths and one of the initiatives being recognised are The Creative Place Awards. These celebrate the hard work and imagination that contribute to the rich cultural life of a community, as well as its social and economic well-being.

It was these awards that I was commissioned to frame. They had been designed in-house and to complement the clean, contemporary look and the square format (nice change from A4), myself and the designer settled on a simple, black lacquered, flat faced moulding with a complementary coloured window mount. As the awards were going to be photographed, non-reflective glass was used.

Details of the winners and runners up can be found here.

I hope it’s a prosperous one for us all, though that’s probably somewhat optimistic. Doom and gloom, howling winds and driving rain are the order of the day, so I am consoling myself with a bar of The Chocolate Library’s finest 70% cocoa solids dark chocolate, sent to me as a Christmas gift from the very talented, very lovely photographer, Brendan MacNeill. Thank you Brendan – I hope that 2012 is a good one for you.

It is exactly one year since I moved into my Jamaica Street premises and given the gales outside right now I am glad to be in a basement. I wouldn’t put money on the roof at my last place coming out unscathed.

The move to the New Town has been a good one and I have met lots of new people and enjoyed working on some interesting and varied projects. I was particularly pleased to have been involved with the framing and hanging at Centotre and The Scottish Cafe and hope to do more of that kind of work in the coming year.

During the Christmas break, me and hubs managed to catch the Elizabeth Blackadder exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery – one day before it closed. The work on show spanned nearly six decades and there was much lovely stuff. However, as usual, I was as much taken with examining the frames as the paintings and couldn’t help but notice just how much a frame contributes to enhancing a piece of art. Some of the earlier pieces were clearly framed when the artist had little budget and as such were framed unsympathetically – or just not very well. There was a marked difference with other, more recent pieces where a skilled framer had been employed and for me, that really influenced my enjoyment of the work.

I would be interested to know what the view is for artists and galleries and indeed, collectors, where re-framing an original painting is concerned. Should it be kept in its original frame, to keep its authenticity? Or does it depend on its condition?  Or is it just personal taste? Comments welcome.

As usual, I plan to take photos of my more interesting commissions this year, with the intention of displaying the results here on my blog. And that’s probably the closest I’ll get to making a new years resolution.

I am pleased to report that I have just completed my second framing project for the indomitable Carina Contini of Centotre and Scottish Café fame. Many of you (hello Edinburgh Coffee Morning goers), will no doubt have seen the fantastic shots from the lens of local photographer, Shannon Tofts, that are currently gracing the walls of Edinburgh’s most popular eatery. I had the privilege of working with Shannon on that project, undertaking the framing, hand-setting the captions then hanging (with the aid of wonderful handyman Dave) the final 15 shots.

Last Sunday, while most of you were probably still in bed, me and my ‘humper’ (his words, not mine)), husband Mike Coulter, were hard at it again. Hanging pictures. But this time in the hallowed halls of the Scottish National Gallery no less.

It is here, that the Contini’s run The Scottish Café (on the Princes Street Gardens level) where the very best of Scottish produce is championed.To mark their second anniversary, Shannon was commissioned to take portraits of their team of wonderful suppliers and producers, highlighting the provenance and quality of the ingredients the café uses.

As with the Centotre project, I made the frames – simple tulip wood, hand finished with a pale grey wash – and painstakingly, hand set the captions beneath each shot. This really was a labour of love, tweezers in hand, carefully composing, with 3mm rubber type, the words which hopefully convey just how important these people are to the whole ‘Scottishness’ that is the Scottish Café.

The results, if I may say, look great. Shannon’s portraits looking every bit worthy of hanging in such esteemed surroundings. And I’m rather chuffed with my frames too. The National Gallery – who’d have thought?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrscoulter/sets/72157628192526579/

The auction (Billy’s Big Charity Auction) that I blogged about last month was a huge success and raised over £10,000 on the night, so well done to everyone involved including hubs Mike Coulter who took these brilliant photos of the event.

I have just framed a cracking photograph on behalf of Theakstons (commissioned by cor agency) which recently won an award in the UK’s biggest pub photography competition Pub Life.

It was won by acclaimed snapper Graham Cornthwaite, who co-incidentally, was unofficial photographer at our wedding 19 years ago. I say unofficial because he was actually a guest, but he had to ‘sing for his supper’ so to speak. Well done Corny!

The image makes me all nostalgic for a pint of Old Peculiar (a past favourite tipple), enjoyed in the warm and cosy interior of a good old-fashioned country boozer. Which I hope to be doing next week when we spend some much overdue quality time, renting a lovely cottage down in the Scottish Borders with my husband’s family. The workshop will be closed from 21st till the 31st October. See you in November.

There’s loads of great stuff up for grabs. Take a peek at what’s going under the hammer.

Here’s one of my favourite shots, kindly donated by David Boni, that I have framed using a simple tulip wood moulding, hand finished with a light grey wash.

The bar opens at 6pm, the auction kicks off at 8pm. Come along. Bring your wallets.

As readers of my blog will know, I framed several copies of the winning Fringe poster this year along with a number of other artworks that were exhibited at various venues across the city. In my quieter periods, I put the time to good use by doing a bit of DIY and maintenance so the outside of the workshop is looking quite neat and tidy. The new signage has been much admired and has prompted one nearby resident to say ‘I never knew there was a framer here’. (There has in fact been another framing business here for twenty years). Hopefully it will attract new customers.

I am now looking forward to my involvement in an up-and-coming charity event that takes place on Thursday 29 Sept at The Old Ambulance Depot. It’s in a very worthy cause and you can read all about it at Billy’s BIG Charity Auction page. A number of celebrated photographers from Scotland and the North of England have kindly donated limited edition, signed prints that I have the pleasure of framing. And as the organiser of the event, (Gareth Howells of Newhaven Agency) has given me free reign to do what I like, I’m having fun trying out one or two new things.

I’ll put up some images once they are finished to whet your appetite. You may even want to come along and bid!

I am pleased to say that I have just completed mounting the 2011 competition entries together with the framing of the winning poster which was announced on 1st June at the Museum of Childhood and is featured below. Big congratulations to Ailsa Purdie from the High School of Dundee for her fantastic. colourful design which will be seen by thousands of people in Edinburgh throughout the Festival. And if you pop along to the Museum of Childhood after 9th June you can see all 70 of the other competition entries from over 30 schools around Scotland.

Ailsa Purdie’s winning poster design framed in hand stained black frame.

Long before I became ‘Framer to the Fringe’, I was a fan of the Fringe. And if you are too, I’d like to offer what I hope is an attractive 20% discount for your own framing requirements throughout the duration of the Festival.

All you have to do to get your Fan of the Fringe Framing discount is bring along a ticket or ticket stub from any Fringe event when you visit my workshop on Jamaica Street, anytime before 29th August.

I look forward to seeing you and here’s to a fabulous Fringe!

Contact details.

My new workshop at 3a Jamaica Street, whilst being a tad warmer and a little bigger, unfortunately isn’t great for mobile or internet access which means I am a) having to run up the stairs (it’s a basement property), into the street to use my phone and b) organising a new service provider so that I can once again email, tweet, Facebook and listen to 5 Live. Oh and blog of course.

I don’t make resolutions as a rule as i don’t want to disappoint myself when I fail, but I will try, honestly I will, to be much better at posting this year.

I hope 2011 is a happy and successful one for us all.

I have just finished framing my last job here at Albion Road. On Monday we head down south, first for a wedding, then to enjoy Christmas with our folks. In between the holidays, I will be packing up the workshop in readiness for my move to new premises on Jamaica Street in the new town. I will be sharing a workshop with a fellow framer and hope that the new place will give me a bit more visibility and make it easier for customers to find me (often a problem at Albion Road).

Freezing temperatures aside, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here. It’s a great little community of very talented individuals, ranging from artists, furniture designers, woodworkers, leatherworkers, textile and fashion designers and metal workers. Little is known of the wealth of skilled individuals that work here, but the hope is that funding and support from a number of government/council bodies will see that all change next year.

As from January 5th, my new address will be: 3a Jamaica Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HH. I look forward to seeing you there. Until then, a very happy Christmas to you all and a big thank you for your custom.

As some of you will know, Ewan McIntosh of No Tosh, does lots of travelling with his job. In fact he is rarely at home for more than a few days at a time. But with the imminent arrival of baby no 2, his travels are on hold for a while, so I caught up with him earlier this week to deliver my latest framing job for him.

Ewan was recently in South Africa where he purchased a number of stunning canvases painted by a young artist called Akida, who had walked from his home in Malawi to South Africa – I’m guessing many hundreds of miles – in order to sell his art so he can make a better life for himself and his family.

The paintings are vivid and full of life and require nothing more than very simple framing, so once I had stretched the canvas, I discussed the options with Ewan’s wife, Morgane. We agreed upon a narrow black L-style moulding from Lion, specially designed to carry canvases. These two-way mouldings are clever in that they can be used in either of two ways depending on the depth of the canvas. They also have a 10mm step which makes positioning nice and easy.

I hadn’t used this moulding before, but the result was really good. So much so, that Ewan has given me another one to do which I understand will be a Christmas present for his parents.