picture frame as metaphor

I had a rough start to my work day yesterday... late to work, then I started in with a series of mistakes, all fixable, no $$ wasted, but still, I caused my very reserved boss to exclaim, "What are you doing!!!! Drink some coffee!!" I had a hard time getting past how very useless and stupid I felt. This used to be the place in which I felt the most confidence, but I find that I really need to take things a little bit slower now, and really concentrate to get myself into the frame chopping mode.

There is still a lot that I love about making frames, though. Especially when I get to work with beautiful hardwood moulding, like a nice cherry. Oh, my, the wonderfulness of cherry wood! It's color is gorgeous, a soft silky rust color, swirled with naturally graceful fine grain. It is very hard, but not splintery at all. Maple is very similar, but naturally paler, like butter. Yum. My chopper blades were getting a little dull, so I was cutting all the frames that don't require super sharp, fresh blades. That gives me 3 options generally:

1) hardwood. like cherry or oak or ash. delightful.

2) good quality softwood of a certain kind, I'm not even sure what it is, but it is not pine, and almost seems like some kind of compressed wood. nice to work with, subtle waxed finishes, gently distressed.

3) the bane of my existence, 'bonanzawood', which is not wood at all but some kind of crap that is like super dense compressed cardboard, or an MDF (medium density fiberboard). Ew. this stuff is covered with a paper-like wrapping, that is manufactured to imitate wood grain. I hate it. I don't like things that are not genuine. Or things that explode with a little noxious puff of cardboardy dust when I cut into them. Gross. It is overly heavy, and fake, and cheap, and I don't trust it. By the way, we tell customers exactly what they are getting, so if they cheap out, they are not being fooled.

Now, I get that framing is expensive. prohibitively expensive. But if you are gonna spring for a luxury like custom framing, go the extra 30 bucks and get some real wood. Ok, ok, I also get that if you are really budgeting with integrity and you have alloted a certain amount, then you might have to go with a cheaper option to stay within your limits. And that is a really, really, good thing, and good for you for sticking to your guns. When all is said and done, what your pictures are framed with isn't really going to matter.

But, there is something to be said for quality. Were I a manufacturer of picture frame moulding, which I am not, I would want to produce top notch materials. I would want to do my very best. I love to work with good materials for a reason. They are beautiful, and often easy and pleasant to work with. They generally smell nice, and don't make my skin itch. They are usually of natural origin, too, which makes all the sense in the world to me.

I kind of felt, while chopping frames yesterday, that the moulding was like different kinds of people. Some are natural, solid, beautiful in their confidence, graceful with a simple curve. When you go below the surface, you get exactly what you expect: real, sweet smelling truth. There are imperfections, but then, they never claimed to be perfect. Some are rather polished looking, no one would ever know that they were not wood, but they require some tricky handling to get to the inside without making an awful mess. Once open, you see dusty cardboard instead of wood, and you can also clearly see the papery veneer that covered the outside for what it is, an imitation. Now cardboard did start out as some kind of wood pulp product, right? So somewhere along the way, that kind of person lost sight of what they were meant to be, and pursued appearances, while ignoring the inner things that matter. I hope that I am like the first kind.

Sorry, to those of you who are not interested in picture frame moulding or cheesy metaphors! Actually, this was more of an extended similie, but whatever, you understand me, I'm sure.