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Take a tour of our Richmond, CA production facility
WRITTEN by Todd Evans, San Anselmo Store Manager
A common question we get at the Painters Place is, “Do you do the work here in the store?”
It might be surprising to hear that we do not, but we have a very good answer for why that is the case. We specialize in Hand Made Custom Frames. In order to do that, we need a production facility large enough to contain molding storage, a woodshop, a finishing department, a mounting and matting department, a fitting department, as well as a central business office. Our Production Facility serves our three Bay Area Retail locations, and is centrally located in Richmond where warehouse space is abundant and reasonably priced.
Welcome to Our Woodshop
Our woodshop is where we store 9 foot lengths of raw wood and pre-finished frame moulding. When an order comes in we cut down these moulding lengths to the sizes we need in order to build a custom frame. Sometimes we rip extra embellishments, like a Bevel Face, or Spline Corners, or we might add a Burl Wood Veneer. We’ve got the tools, space and talent to make whatever your heart’s desires.
Once a raw wood moulding has been joined, we “Sand and Fill” the frame. This entails adding a little wood putty where needed and then sanding the frame to the desired smoothness that the finish requires. We do a moderate amount of sanding for most stains and waxes, however paint finishes and gilding require many more passes with finer grain sand paper.
Finishing Department
Once the frame has been Sanded and Filled, it moves onto the Finishing Department. Opaque paint finishes get sprayed in the spray booth. Each frame gets about 4-6 coats of paint. Some frames get several coats of one color of paint, and then several more coats of a different color paint. After the final coat has cured, our finisher then buffs the frame with fine steel wool. After several passes with the steel wool, the bottom color will start to show through on the protruding edges and surfaces.The end result is a beautiful two color finish. Other types of frames are finished with combinations of stains, waxes, lacquers, and shellacs.
We also do in-house Oil Gilding which is the application of Gold Metal Leaf or Silver Metal Leaf to a frame. Some of our more discerning customers may prefer the burnished luster of Water Gilding. We have one of the best Water Gilders in the bay area on-call for these jobs.
Matting Department
Our Matting Department takes great care to protect every clients’ artwork. We use the most archival materials and conservation focused protocols. We take our time to do the job well, and we never cut corners. Sometimes we reframe work that has been previously framed at a big box craft store or a cheap frame shop, and when we open up the old frame, the customer is mortified to find that their artwork had been glued to the mat-board and backing with irreversible double stick tape, or a multitude of other art damaging shortcuts the previous framer might have made in order to meet an arbitrary quota of completed work for the day. Our sales staff are also trained to advocate for the most conservation focused designs.
Fitting Department
The Fitting Department is where all of the hand crafted components are assembled together into a finished product. Great care is taken to make sure dust doesn’t get into the frame while we are fitting the art package. With over 60 years of institutional experience we will always make sure that the work you hang on your wall, will stay on your wall.
Because art travels to and from our production department, we go the extra step in investing in higher quality packaging materials for our finished products. Instead of just wrapping the finished product in paper, we also wrap custom trimmed cardboard around the art. For some pieces with more delicate finishes, we even create acid free foam core covers for the art.
At the Painters Place, we go the extra mile to ensure the art remain in perfect condition for that final trip to the client’s home.
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