NEWS

2016

Year three has been a productive one for TFPCOURTMOUNTING, completing over one hundred & fifty orders for medals and frames. Although this may not sound a lot it has kept me busy throughout the financial year. Broken down it equates to eighty four sets of medals, a mixture of full size, miniatures and replica medals, twenty five picture frames, thirty memorabilia frames, four medal display cases, three ribbon bars one Tower of London Poppy display case, five sports shirt frames and I have effected two repairs to customers damaged frames. Over 50% of this work has come from previous customers or through recommendations.

Something new for me this year was to build stretcher frames for canvas prints. This was a new type of build for me and required some research; as I found out that there are many variations on the method to carry out the work, so in true military form I took the bull by the horns. My first commission was a set of four American Football canvas's that made up one picture, I was very pleased with the end results, as was my customer.

I have attempted to diverse a little this year by also producing a selection of decorated wooden and slate hearts. These are decorated by using a sticky-back vinyl which I design and cut out on a CRICUT machine. I have also used this process but with card to produce printed and cut badges for some of my memorabilia frames.

I have taken orders from all over the UK, from the Highlands of Scotland to Northern Ireland as well as main land England. Overseas, I have had orders from customers from Australia, The Netherlands and the USA. Social media has again played a huge part in gathering business, one frame in particular had over seven thousand five hundred views.

I have showed at a couple of craft fares locally in Peterborough with mixed results. Specialising in military memorabilia attracts a limited customer base as I found out. I have continued to develop this website and with feedback from users, I hope that I have been able to produce something that is both pleasing to the eye, informative and balanced.

A big thank you to everyone who has used my small but developing company this year and especially to those who have been returning customers and those who have taken the time to give me productive feedback and produced testimonials.

2015

Year 2 for me and business was progressing well. I found that the majority of work was coming from word of mouth which was being boosted by the use of 'social media', such as my Facebook Page which was allowing me reach a wide and varied audience, it also let me pop-up pictures of new work that I knew would be seen by my followers. Many of the pictures were shared which in turn helped to boost my customer range. My first website was starting to look tired so I decided that a new fresh approach was needed. At the end of the year I approached my daughter Sam for some guidance and with her knowledge and expertise a new site was put into the design and build process with an aim of publishing early in 2016.

2014

My first year in business. I was working mainly out of my garage for the production of picture frames using basic picture framing equipment. It soon became apparent that I needed a premises dedicated to my work. A damp and cold garage was fast becoming an unworkable environment. I invested in a 12 x 10 shed which I built at the bottom of the garden, with mains power supplied and lots of natural light I would have a pleasant environment to work from. I also invested in a professional mortice guillotine, a 'MORSO F' as well as new mount cutter. I built another worktable dedicated to mount cutting and put racks on the wall for the moulding. The workshop has also been fully insulated so is now a pleasant place for me to work from and also gives me the space I needed for all of the equipment.

2013

In May 2013 I donated £5000 to the Royal Air Forces Association after court mounting over two thousand medals for Servicemen and women, and well as Police Officers and Ambulance drivers.

After his first charity donation to Help for Heroes, I continued to be inundated with requests for ,y services and decided to “keep it up.”

After serving over 32 years in the RAF I wanted to support a charity that worked closely with ex-service men and women, as well as those still serving.

It took me nine months to raise the money. But it was challenging and times consuming. It takes me about 15 minutes to mount a single medal, so a brooch of five medals can take over an hour.

RAFA is a charity and has a membership of over 65,000 members who are both ex-RAF and serving men and women in the Royal Air Force.

Michael Bolton, the director of fundraising and marketing for RAFA received the donation on behalf of the charity. He said: “£5000 is an enormous effort, given the things that we do and it could help people keep in touch with their families with our storybook wings effort. Or it could enable visits for veterans or it can help with the serving RAF. This will go a long way in helping us continue all the work that we do.”

2012

I donated £5000 to Help for Heroes in August 2012

In August 2012, I was able to donate £5000 to forces charity Help for Heroes.

I spent the 24 months court mounting service medals for both serving and retired armed forces personnel from all the of the Services. Many of the medals that I havew mounted have been for people stationed at RAF Wittering, but I have mounted medals for other military units from RAF Leuchars in Scotland to RAF Stafford in the West midlands.

I have witnessed first hand the injuries sustained by the young lads and I have just been so proud that I have been able to give H4H what is probably a drop in the ocean to them. But it could be that drop that allows them to complete a vital project or ensure that an injured Serviceman gets that special prosthetic limb that will allow them to have a more normal life, or the encouragement to take up a new walk of life, such as a sport, which could and indeed has led to them being part of the 2012 London Para-Olympics.