Former profs shop
will leave pictures...
Fit to be hung
\
Photos by Doug Lamb
Anybody can make a frame, even if you can hardly see over the table.
Former University Professor Lynn McDonald gives some tips to his
daughter Megan at his shop on 4th Avenue and High Street. McDonald
has been successful in his venture, admitting with tongue-in-cheek
that his “marvelous personality has helped.'
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Seemingly fighting a losing battle with a runaway
hose is Quat McNeil, an employe at Lynn
McDonald’s frame shop. McNeil has just finished
vacuuming the picture she is working on. Though
McDonald and McNeil both work at the shop, it
offers patrons a chance to make their own frames, or
as McDonald puts it, “the chance to invest time
instead of money ”
By JOCK HATFIELD
Of the Emerald
Have you ever wondered what
to do with that green one-eyed self
portrait you drew when you were
two, or with the yellowed picture of
your pineapple-faced great aunt?
Former University Prof. Lynn
McDonald has the answer: frame
them.
McDonald, who left the Univer
sity CSPA school a year and a half
ago, now owns his own frame
shop on 4th Avenue and High
Street. His shop offers one of the
few "make your own frame bars
in Eugene.
"Business has been a great
success, says McDonald "It was
running all right when I came in;
but you know, a young person with
fresh ideas has to improve busi
ness. My marvelous personality
also helped,' he adds.
The key to McDonald s success
has been the do-it-yourself frame,
which he says comprises about
half of his business. “The do-it
yourself frames offer people the
chance to invest time instead of
money," says McDonald. "I cut
the molding and the customer
does the work.”
“When in doubt ask — advice is
free, mistakes aren't," reads the
sign in back of the large work
bench McDonald provides for his
customers.
But McDonald says some of his
customers still make mistakes
"Sometimes they make a
trapezoid instead of a frame,
forget the nails, or do it back
wards Others are more success
ful. Keith Courrant and his mother
Beth have finished the hour-long
process of fitting, gluing and past
ing together the corners of their
frame. “Why don t you sand off the
edges on it," McDonald tells them
as they insert the final staples
“There s someone at the table
all day," says McDonald, and at
Christmas the place is like a rail
road station." Customers can
save from 30 to 50 per cent by
making their own frame instead of
buying it completed, according to
McDonald. ‘‘That frame costs
$12," says McDonald, indicating
the Courrants frame. "If I were
selling it ready-made it would cost
over $20.”
But McDonald also enjoys mak
ing frames to sell. "I can t let the
customers have all the fun, he
says. McDonald believes there is
a creative end to his field. This
mat I'm custom-making here will
frame a picture of a dead guy, he
relates, “so I decided to do it in
black and grey instead of orange
McDonald says much of his time is
spent helping customers to select
their frame size, type and color
“Deciding what you want to do is
the hardest part, he says
Asked why he left the Univer
sity, McDonald replied, "I didn't
like it there. I didn t feel well-suited
to the professor trip." McDonald s
old boss, former Prof Jim Mar
shall, also of CSPA, followed his
lead two months ago and bought a
glass shop next door to
McDonald s
"I guess my reason s the same
as Lynn s, he said. "I was tired of
the frustrations of University life
and wanted to try living in the pri
vate sector
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