As I mentioned last week I ordered a pair of longer side stretchers for my Millennium frame, and because it didn’t make a difference to the postage a couple of other things made their way into my shopping basket – a wooden fabric-into-the-groove pusher and a pair of clever plastic gadgets for securely storing the grooved bars without the rods falling out. The tracking information for my order promised they’d be with me on the 9th; in the end they turned up today, 10 days after placing the order. Not bad! (The record is held, however, by a stitching friend who had a pair of bars for her Millennium frame delivered in 7 days. To France. Ah well.)
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One reason for getting the longer stretchers was my plan of setting up the Millennium frame as an additional sampling cloth for the RSN goldwork module. The hoop works fine at home, but to use it at a class I need to take two different stands (the Sonata seat stand for the hoop, and the Aristo lap stand for the slate frame) and as they are both fairly bulky with lots of sticky-outy bits that is rather awkward. Much easier to take the slate frame and the Millennium frame which will both happily sit on the Aristo. So I’ve got together some calico, the original piece of silk dupion I bought which had the grain running the wrong way, the grooved bars, my new side stretchers, herringbone tape and parcel string (not to mention that implement for potentially inflicting serious injury, the bracing needle) and I’m ready to get framed up this weekend.
An added bonus is that I get another go at attaching silk to a calico background; practice makes perfect, they say! Admittedly it would have been more useful to have had this practice before attaching the “official” silk, but I’m sure the experience won’t be wasted.
Lucky you! I had to wait four months for my millennium frame by which time I had finished the piece I had intended to use it on. I wouldn’t have minded the delay but the total lack of communication just wasn’t acceptable in these days of easy emails. I shall think twice before ordering anything from them again.
I agree that they really do need to get their email communication sorted out; on the other hand, giving them a call seems to be a good way of keeping the communication channels open – those people that I’ve heard of who got their frames etc within a reasonable time generally kept in touch with them by telephone. But you’re right that nowadays if you do offer an email address you can’t really get away with not replying fairly quickly. It’s a shame because their frames are things of beauty!