FRAMED

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In the photo industry, we tend to place much emphasis on the photographs and the photographers but hardly any credit or afterthought goes to the people behind the scene who labouriously piece together the raw materials from wood, glass and paper mounts that accentuates the photographs we capture or art pieces clients bring in.

I spent close to two weeks thinking about what to write about that would shed light on something many of us take for granted and it  wasn’t until a client who recently bought my 8-inch high by 12-feet wide Kampong Ayer panorama and a 12R print of Oriental Pied hornbills-in-flight photo and I met at Sunny’s to discuss her framing options when it dawned on me what I needed to write about—our less talked about colleagues in the business. It’s not everyday (at least not in framing outlets in the Brunei capital) you get to see your preferred woodpecker at work. Like me, Sunny works alone in his craft and has been doing so for over 20 years. Unlike me, he doesn’t have to get sunburned like I have to sometimes though it’s sunny inside! Hope you enjoy this piece 🙂

Wood strips of various measurements as raw materials in the craft business

Adhesive paper rolls add a professional finishing touch to a framed picture.

The underpinner or moulding joiner is used to join two pieces of angle cut wood strips together

Engraving machine used to engrave plastic name tags

Sunny handling a customer's large canvas piece while carrying on a conversation with Gavin

No frame too wide. The adhesive paper strips are cut to length before they're labouriously applied to the frame.

Long strips of paper have a natural tendency to curl up into objects of aesthetics.

The frame chopper where pieces of wood are cut to 45 degrees where they are joined by the Underpinner

Mr red cottoned woody woodpecker churns out well crafted frames afte frames

A better view of the underpinner in action where frames are "stamped" in place.

The wooden frames are pinned and checked for consistency

Cutting the adhesive paper to length for this rather small picture frame