I care about art, and I care about the environment.

Everything I do aims at deepening my connection to art and to nature. I’ve always loved making and designing things that feel good to use and hold, and that are well-made inside and out. And I like to solve problems, to push the envelope and find new or better ways of doing things.

Simon Keyte, Director and Senior Framemaker.

Our online collection

For the past six years we’ve been making fully custom frames from our small workshop in Frome, Somerset. Our online collection is a pared back selection of our most popular frame styles and designs. Because this range of frames focuses on a limited selection of materials, we’re able to offer these frames at a cheaper rate than our fully bespoke selection. But this collection doesn’t replace our established and varied bespoke service, so if you can’t find what you’re looking for here, then head over to our main website and book an appointment to see our frame consultants who’ll help design the perfect frame for your picture. Certain things can only be framed well bespoke, including objects, fragile or valuable works, and large artworks (like the one pictured with Simon here, by Anita Taylor).

Why we frame

We love expressions of creativity and emotion, whether that’s Constable, Picasso, a football mascot, your child’s drawings, or the love letters between your grandparents. Any true expression of emotion is art. We want to help people connect to and enjoy this art, to protect it for years to come, and to use our skills and knowledge to make frames that are quietly beautiful, inside and out.

Our standards

The inside of a frame is as important as the outside. Many framers drive down prices by making frames quickly using cheap materials that degrade paper over time. Many “conservation” mountboards and materials are often so-called as a marketing spin, and are not recommended by genuine conservators. We only use materials that have been approved by paper conservators, which means we only use cotton mountboards, and specialist gummed tapes or traditional starch-paste and mulberry paper. We adhere to International Organisation for Standardisation guidelines to ensure that our materials and techniques will not damage the image or accelerate natural decay rates.

Sustainability

At Mount we’re working towards reducing our impact. Picture framing is an industry that uses materials and natural resources – many of these materials are not from sustainable sources, and the cheap methods used to manufacture means they have a short shelf-life. We’re always looking for ways to reduce our impact whilst accepting the limitations we have as a small company. Most of our waste is recycled or reused. This isn’t enough for us, so we’re making big plans to keep reducing our impact.

One of the first things we’re implementing is phasing out all obeche from our frames. Obeche comes from tropical forests in Africa. Framers like to use it because it’s cheap and it has an even, indistinct grain. This timber may be logged legally, but it’s being taken in huge quantities from sensitive areas that shouldn’t be used for commercial exploitation. We’re phasing obeche out of our offering completely, replacing it with non-obeche FSC timber, and aiming to move towards locally sourced wood as soon as we can.

All our frames are built to be handed-down from one generation to another. Instead of re-framing anew every 5-10 years, the work can remain in its frame for decades or centuries, fully protected in timelessly well-designed frames. Our new aim is that every part of our frames, except the glazing, will be compostable. If anyone in the future wants to dispose of our frames, all but the glass will rot down when placed into a bacteria-rich, wet environment. At present there’s no way around the environmental effects of glass, but good quality glass is an important aspect of protecting artwork from damage, and it can be reused or broken down to sand.