I'm taking a break from job hunting this morning. I'm so burned out from work. I'm burned out from job hunting. I just don't feel like I'm in the right place mentally. I think I'm going to take the morning for myself, relax a bit, and hopefully this afternoon I'll be in a good state of mind to e-mail some resumes out. There's a frame shop about three towns over. I'm thinking about going out there with some of my antique car ads and consult with them on options for wood, prices, etc. I have quite a few that need to be framed and some posters that I want re-framed, so I'm hoping to maybe talk them into a bulk deal. While I'm there, I might even ask whoever I'm talking to how they got into the business, just because it seems like a halfway fun job and I'd love to learn more about it. Maybe it's something I could see myself doing down the road. I think either yellowoftops or tacocat on here recently mentioned working in a frame shop. If I'm remembering right, and it is one of you two and you feel like it, feel free to share a bit about it with me. I'd love to hear about it.
I do indeed work in a frame shop. I wouldn't recommend it as a hobby but maybe you're thinking about doing it as work. As a hobby it'd be expensive as hell. There's way too much specialized equipment. If you wanted to buy mostly everything and assemble it yourself I'd say the return on in vestment and results would be better just to pay to have it done. As a job it's repetitive as hell. I can just about do it in my sleep but I'm above average intelligence and good with my hands. Some days I don't want to be there. That said, it beats working in an office. I did that a couple times and was bored out of my mind. I'm moving all day if not making any decisions with a high degree of intellectual difficultly, I still mostly like it. I make like super high retail money which is still poor but not far from the average of someone with a fine arts degree. I got into it because I have a fine arts degree. My boss who's the owner of our shop got into through family. Even for him it's not a high paying field. He seems solidly upper middle class. Just ask and I answer any questions not covered by my interpretation of your comment. It's not that interesting though: cut glass, blow off mats, staple in pictures, eight hours a day.
Yeah, I'm mostly looking into it as a job possibility. I like working with my hands and don't mind repetitive work, so I was just kind of curious as to how you like it, the pay, how long you've been doing it, etc. The lady at the frame shop was super nice. She got into it similarly apparently, going to school for design. It was something she did to pay her way through school and she liked it so much, she just never stopped. She seemed both super relaxed and enthusiastic about her job at the same time, which I thought was great.
It's a very relaxed environment. Some of my gripes come from depression and a bad attitude that I suppress well for the most part. I'm sorry rinx I'm just an asshole sometimes. I make $15 an hour and have been doing it for about three years at different businesses. No health insurance for some reason related to the ACA that I don't understand in a state with no Medicare expansion. Paid holidays and vacation time. I like working with my hands too and cutting a freehand mostly straight line with a glass cutter is incredibly satisfying. Before this stint in retail I worked at a commercial mirror glazier and it was kind of a shit show. Some business men got together and decided making frames isn't that hard and decided to sell framed mirrors to construction companies. I'd show up hours late but never got fired because I was one of two people qualified to work there. The other qualified guy sometimes came in drunk and got sent home.
No need to apologize! Sometimes text is tough to accurately convey meaning. I tend to not hold internet grudges, and it sounds like your kinda going through a lot right now. I don't write very well and I can come off a lot meaner online if I'm not careful.
That was tacocat. Would you consider framing those ads yourself? The frame shop about three towns over has wood, mats, glass, tools, know-how, and a little drawer for your money. If you have time, you can get all the materials, and tacocat and YouTube might provide a lot of the know-how. You won't do as good a job as they would on your first try, but you'll get better. And you'll spend the money on tools you can keep and reuse. Become a framing master and you'll never have to shop for a gift again.
I would, if I had the place for the tools at the moment. Unfortunately I'm short on space. That said, the shop is giving me a heck of a deal. I'm getting 4 ads framed (2 in a single frame cause they're so small) for about $150. Granted, that's over ten times what I paid for the ads themselves, but you know, antique collecting can be a weird hobby. I'm reminded why the wife and I don't really do any serious antique hunting any more.