About Us
Mounts.uk.com - Moonshine Framing's Picture Mount site
We started in 1994. Right from the very beginning we specialised not only in framing, but cutting picture mounts. We have always traded in Penzance, West Cornwall. We started on a market stall selling mounted antique prints and cartoons from vintage Punch magazines, these mounts were all cut on a manual keencut mount cutter back then. Over the years we have cut hundreds of thousands, probably millions of picture mounts. We stopped counting a long time ago!
We have a small team at work - in the workshops Kevin, Tom and Mark, with Suzi and Sharon in the shop and on the telephone. Tom is responsible for most of the frames, Kevin and Mark operate the mount cutting machinery, and everyone pitches in with the packing of online orders. We have a FedEx collection every day, and ship smaller orders by post daily as well. Front of house Sharon and Suzi also process the FedEx shipping, order tracking etc, as well as helping customers on the telephone and at the shop counter.
We do think we have very skilled people. Framing is a skilled and very technical job, despite first appearances. There is a lot to know to get it right, and it takes four or five years in a busy workshop before someone is a half decent picture framer. Anyone who tells you that you can do a two day course and then pick it up as you go along is either a fool, or they are trying to sell you a course. Our shop counter staff have twenty years framing/frame shop experience between them, as do our workshop staff, so there is about 40 years combined framing experience on hand for your order!
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We can frame most things in the shop, and maker most types of frame to specification. But on our web site we have put a range of framing and picture frames that cover most tastes and pockets, and which you will find easy to put your own pictures in.
When you look on Google or any search engine for picture mounts, or mount cutting, photo mounts etc you will probably see our Moonshine Framing site. This was one of the first to offer click-and-buy picture mounts, and over the years many new competitors have copied a lot of what we do. Many of them copy or prices, even steal photos and images, text and content from our web sites. Over the years we have seen many come and go. We pride ourselves on offering a good service to our customers, and have many great testimonials. A lot of our work comes by recommendation and word of mouth.
Yes, the web site is a bit of a mess, but it has evolved over more than a decade, starting as a one-page "business card". Over time we have tried to answer all the questions that people ask us by putting framing and mounts information on the site. We've even had people in the framing business tell us they often used our site as reference material when starting out!
We have all types of customers, including household names, global companies, and individuals all over the UK. Because we have no minimum order you can order one mount, or a thousand, and our web site ordering system will work out a discount for you there and then. All our customers are equally important to us.
Our 4th generation mat-cutting machine, the cmc-8500 has now replaced our 3rd generation wizard 8000, which had actually cut more mounts than any which the distributors had seen in the UK, and it was a great machine, barely run in after years of working sometimes round the clock. The reason we changed to the latest model was to offer the straight cut outside edges, and for a slight speed increase. This machine came from Mulkito, Washington USA, via Germany. We have been highly impressed with our Wizards, although they cost more than most mount cutting machines, they have enabled us to offer a reliable service year on year.
We have always been primarily a "real" shop. So you are dealing with a real business and real people, and not just a web site.
If you are in Penzance any time, do call in and see us, have a look in the shop, we'll be pleased to see you.