Erieversible

As we packed up our belongings last May, ready for shipment, we included a number of items that needed framing.  It made no sense to frame them up in the Isle of Man and then have them damaged during the shipping process.  Or so we thought.  Wrong!

(As a side note, the only items that were broken during our personal effects’ 7 month journey were glass in a number of picture frames.  None of the pictures themselves were damaged, luckily, just the glass.)

The price we were quoted today to have these items framed was ridiculous.  Astronomical.  And the stunning fact is that the prices we were quoted were after a 50% off special offer!  What we should have done is got them all framed on the Isle of Man (at quite reasonable prices as it happens), let them get broken in transit and then claimed the cost on the shipping insurance.  So, there’s a tip for anyone else planning such a move, plan for damage to pictures and let the insurance cover the astronomical costs.

In the end we declined the very ungenerous offer for framing the new items, but went ahead and replaced the glass in broken items.  An option is to see how good (or bad) the items will look using standard, off the shelf, frames and mats.  We’ll work on it.  Meanwhile, if anyone can suggest an outlet in the Buffalo area that doesn’t charge ridiculous costs for customer framing, please let us know.  Or has anyone used an online service?

I happened across a web site today that really intrigued me and which I thought you might appreciate.  It is a company based in Germany called Fluid Forms.  The genius of the site for me is the customer option to order up a piece of wood carved with the relief map of….just about anywhere!  

The concept is stunning and the sad part is that Erie is so flat.  Go to the site and you’ll see what I mean.  I’ve played with the data to include Erie and the peninsula but really don’t think it would be that impressive when produced.  I might treat myself to a chunk of wood centered on the Isle of Man as a Christmas present, though that wouldn’t be able to be used as a bowl, merely as a piece of decorative wood.  But I like wooden objects, so that’s okay.

If you manage to get a good ‘view’ of Erie and order one up, I’d love to see it as and when it arrives.  Or simply post details of how you achieved the good ‘view’ as I’d expect at least someone else to be interested.  It is fun to just play around with locations that form part of your history.

There’s various online articles on the company, the most succinct being an article by Wired.  I haven’t written any articles so far that don’t include our daily experiences, but this site tickled my fancy so much I thought it truly deserved a mention.  Besides which, today has been a  fairly boring day…so far