Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Nothing but a bunch of empty frames...

If there's one craft that is the epitome of what this blog is about it is the Frame Wall.  Google Image "Frame Wall" and you'll see that the crafting types have pretty much taken over the term, but a few hits still bring up the original, manly, frame [aka 2x4 stud] wall. 
Mandy even mentioned it when she let the word out about my blog.  You all know what it is.  In fact, most of you either have a frame wall or wish you did.  When Mandy first told me about the idea, it took her a few tries as I just didn't get it. It's a wall of empty frames.  Empty.  Frames.  On a wall.  Again, the frames are empty.  You can see the wall through the frame.  Thoughts that ran through my head, in no particular order:

  1. Why hang empty frames on a wall?  The function of a frame is to "frame" something.
  2. Where are these frames coming from?  [answer:  garage sales.  We had a stack of frames from garage sales in our basement storage room that grew for a couple of months.  I had to step over it all the time.  I'd organize it and lean them up against the shelf only to have more stacked there after the next round of garage sales]
  3. That's a lot of frames, which means a lot of holes in the wall.  Holes that I'll have to patch up later when we redecorate. Wouldn't online photo books actually hold pictures and leave a lot less work for later?
Once Mandy had acquired a sufficient number of frames I got to help prep them.  We pulled out whatever picture and backing were in them (some of these were nice pictures...some not so nice).  One of them was a very large picture that had obviously cost some real bucks to frame at one point.  But out it came with the mat knife and into the trash.  Another sacrifice at the alter of crafting.

We also had to pull out the glass.  We ended up with a stack of glass that sat in our basement for a couple weeks while Mandy tried to think of something crafty to do with it.  Unfortunately, frame glass is pretty useless.  It's not pretty and not thick enough to be structural.  And our recycling company wouldn't take it.  I tried posting it for free on Craigslist because I hated the thought of just tossing it. No takers...who can blame them?  I didn't want it either.  Finally Mandy said she'd take them into the garage and break them up and toss them.  Images immediately came to my head of Mandy in stitches, kids with shards in their bare feet and glass chips everywhere.  I took over and took them up and one by one, put them in a paper bag, broke them, and tossed them.  It was quite the process.  In retrospect, I'm pretty sure Mandy knew I would do it even before she volunteered.

Next came the hanging of the pictures on the wall.  Mandy took care of most of this with her cousin Kate, who is tall and could reach most of spots on the stairs.  The last part required a ladder and that was saved for me. I didn't know it was being done until I came home from work and saw the other frames on the wall.

I was responsible for hanging the large yellow frame and the frames inside it.  Mandy said just to eyeball the locations, but that just wasn't going to happen.  Tape measure. Mechanical pencil. Fractional division.  Once I had it all plotted out, up they went.  Notice how they are all perfectly horizontally symmetrical?  I was going for vertical symmetry as well, but made a math mistake on the two dark frames in the left of the picture and they ended up a bit high.  I started to re-do the math but Mandy said it was part of the charm and just to hang them up.  Still irks me a bit too this day.

Don't I look thrilled to be part of this fun project?  The step I'm standing on says "Do Not Step". 

The other week I was with a few other guys visiting the house of a crafting-type to help move some furniture and we noticed that she had a frame wall.  I was, of course, previously indoctrinated in the frame wall arena, so I just listened to their comments:  "Why are all the frames empty?"..."That's kind of creepy."

13 comments:

  1. You crack me up!!!
    ...your thinking is LOGICAL...unfortunately, most crafters are FAR from logical thinkers...:))

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  2. I still stand by my love of that wall! my side of the story: http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/2011/10/frame-wall.html

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  3. HAHA! It's so fun to hear what husbands are really thinking when the look at us like we are crazy. My husband wonders all the time why we have "junk" piled in our basement... we will use it one, don't you worry! Plus you'll probably be the one to haul it around : )

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  4. You are by far my favorite craft blogger OF.ALL.TIME. Nobody ever mentions the millions of craft fails, or stupid things we make just to take a picture and post it. And the animal that is Pinterest?!?! Destroying perfectly good dry wall for millions! Here's to you, sir. You and my husband were cut from the same cloth (craft pun not intended).

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  5. I'm with you on this one! I really don't get the frame wall craze. I think a frame should be framing something other than the wall.

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  6. A frame without a picture is like a silver lining without a cloud, or a hair-do without a face or like those guys with the ties but no shirts. A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle. Go figure. But next time convert your fractional figures to decimals or use an engineer's scale.

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  7. Hahaha - I am in tears laughing at both the total truthfulness of your post and the comments following! LOL

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  8. Gotta say... I consider myself a craft blogger of sorts... and I don't get it either! Was that a collective jaw drop I heard all across blog land... Oops. Sorry guys. I just don't get it.

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  9. Maybe the "child of the week" could have their photo in the blue frame. For keeping their room clean or being exemplary in some way.

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  10. Too funny- my husband always seems to catch me taking pictures of dinner before I let anyone dig in, and he ALWAYS says, "why are you taking pictures of the food?". It seems as if he never learns!

    Melanie:)

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  11. I wonder about the frame wall too. But it still looks good! Such a great blog! love hearing your perspective, I know my husband would agree with you :)

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  12. You are hilarious. I just found your blog and I am thoroughly enjoying reading it. It's fun too see what the otherhalfs have to go through. Bravo on not falling off the ladder, I would have :D

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