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Dear John

Mikki Kavich MCPF

Mikki Kavich MCPF

Frequent Poster
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Messages
689
Loc
Crossville, TN
Company
Mikki's Frame Shop
I can no longer continue this every moment of every day relationship. I will always love you and you will always have a place in my heart but I dream of far off places that you don't fit. I have fantasies in color. A richness you will never achieve, your simplicity is admirable but I need more!

I would like to continue to be friends but I must seek out someone who understands me. You always fit in but never standout. It is hard to fly your freak flag when you are so solid and safe!

Please know that I will see you again but for now I must seek out another...

Silver, gold, cherry, copper anything but a basic black frame!!!!!!!!!

3/4 of my frames this week were black...I'm over it!:playful::playful::playful:
 
AMEN Mikki! Some days I think if I have to put together another black frame I will scream! Why do so many lack imagination?
We have all these beautiful samples on the walls and corners for them to touch and feel and roll in the floor with - I don't understand why they don't share our passion! :noidea:

Joyce Michels
Looking forward to a rainy weekend in Mid MO!
 
I think "I just want a plain black frame" is similar to my mom always ordering the simplest chicken dish she can find on the menu. Any menu. It's comfortable. The former boss, from whom I learned more about selling than anyone else, when someone said that would say (while smiling) "why?."

If the client says that to me I'll grab whatever plain black sample I think is a good size and shape and at the same time the frame I think it would look best in. "Before you said 'black' I imagined it with this bronze finish." and put the samples on opposite corners.

Does it work every time? No. But often people say something like "I didn't know that was an option. I just knew I didn't want anything gold or all ..."(waving vaguely at the most ornate gold frames on my wall).

And some weeks it doesn't work at all...*sigh*
 
I go one better than Meghan. I pick up 3 corners since that is what will fit in my hand nicely. I keep a light brown and a dark brown right next to that "plain black" moulding. Most of the time it at least starts a discussion. Many, many times we move on to more interesting frames.

But sometimes, they are going to buy black no matter what. I theorize that they are the same folks who drive 5 miles to Baskin Robbins and order vanilla.:smile-new:
 
It's the same here! I'm over cheap, but shonky and getting shonkier by the month, black frames. I have been very satisfied lately that a few customers with some good taste have chosen much nice and more expensive frames. I like those customers a lot!
 
Mikki,
I have felt the first breezes of the winds of change wafting from the design houses. The LBF (little black frame) will always have its place in the Pantheon, but a challenge is coming for supremacy not unlike the resurgence of Lime Green and Pink in the late 1980's.

WHITE! And not just refrigerator white alone, but WHITE LACQUER! I hear the Disco beat in the distance...

How soon we heal only to plunge back in.

On a more serious note:
I have noticed this trend. I have been working with the folks from HGTV on their current "Smart Home", to be unveiled 4/1, and a vast majority of the frames in the home are simple matte white painted stems. These frames will be seen by an estimated 80 million people over the course of the 6 months the home is featured on the air.
The art consultants are moving away from maple stems to painted white. Photographers are dropping black in favor of white. I have started buying two white stem profiles by the box in reaction.
 
My Dearest Mikki:

I'm crushed, but I appreciate your honesty and understand why your wandering eyes want more exciting relationships in frame designs. You probably will enjoy your fling with that trendy moulding, but please do not forget me. I will always be here, waiting for your return. I will always take care of you and your profit. I will always love you as much as your customers love me. And make no mistake: Your customers will always love me.

Yours truly with undying dedication,
John the Matte Black 1" Flat-Top
:love:
 
I rarely EVER EVER EVER sell a black frame. HATE THEM, and if it does get sold..three piece of ART, NOT NEEDLEWORK, this week were black but with a funky chunky edge on them. FLAT black....not even on my wall. I do use them in my head so why would I put them on my wall. Just like aluminum frames. OH the horror. They are in a box in my garage. I can order such simple-ness from a catalog page and not have to dust it. My shop, my wall, my choice. So take the funky chunky ones...with the cool rattan mats, love those wicker mats. :pop2:
 
Cathy Coggins said:
I rarely EVER EVER EVER sell a black frame. HATE THEM...
Click to expand...

Cathy -- Do you use a POS system? If so run the report showing your top ten selling mouldings for the year - It is always revealing and sometimes surprising!

We're known for pushing creative design, Most award winning frame shop...blah, bah, blah and yet when we've run this report, 4 of the top 10 are typically black. :ohwell: Remember that those stats are slightly skewed however....sometimes black is the first choice that works with the design. :D

Wally Fay said:
I have felt the first breezes of the winds of change wafting from the design houses. The LBF (little black frame) will always have its place in the Pantheon, but a challenge is coming for supremacy... WHITE! ...On a more serious note:
I have noticed this trend. I have been working with the folks from HGTV on their current "Smart Home", to be unveiled 4/1, and a vast majority of the frames in the home are simple matte white painted stems...
Click to expand...

Wally -- Sarah and I were discussing this just last week. How we are contemplating adding a range of pure white readymades after noticing the number of white on white presentations that we see in the home decor catalogs these days!

Your "LBF" and "LWF"... the Budweiser and Bud Light of the framing industry.

John
 
But what is wrong with selling black or white frames Cathy. So long as the customer is happy when it hangs on their wall. You will likely never see the framed picture again and they paid you for doing it. It is not that all your orders will have either plain white or plain black frames. There must be some creative work coming in with ornate frames that make our job worthwhile.

The black and white frames are our bread and butter. They pay for our regular bills such as electricity and phone.
 
Yes, but it would be nice to like it too...:smile-new: But as long as they are paying, I will frame it whatever they want. White has really been growing in popularity here. They don't come in asking for it, but they often leave with it. It is my number 3 seller, following blacks & a 3/4 inch walnut finish that is priced right and looks great with lots of things.
 
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