Goldwork Framing Redo

You may recall that I got my goldwork piece framed at Michael's several weeks ago, and it came out with some unfortunate puckering:

Alas, Michael's wouldn't fix it and said it couldn't be fixed anyway because of the way I stitched it. So I took it to The Attic Needlework to have it re-stretched and remounted, and as you can see, they did a beautiful job:

It is perfectly smooth, with nary a pucker anywhere, as I knew it would be once stretched and mounted correctly. Because when you stitch something on a slate frame and it's perfectly taut, you know the issue isn't with the way you've stitched it.

Update: A week or two after I got this back, I returned to Michael's and showed a store manager the picture of the original frame job compared to this one (I brought the piece in). She sort of nodded while I explained the issue but didn't show much sign of offering to do anything, so I finally asked if she would refund the portion I had to pay to have it redone.

I didn't have the receipt so she wouldn't do that (even though the store has a record of all framing jobs and receipts), but she agreed to give me a gift card for the cost of the reframing (which was $30). I'll never have anything framed by Michael's again, but I still go there for other supplies, so I figured that was better than nothing and agreed to it. She took me back to the framing department to have them look up the record and do a refund on that portion to a gift card.

The woman who had originally framed it was there, but I confess I find it hard to recognize people in masks, so I didn't know it was her. I explained the issue briefly to her, and she said that it had been her and she was sorry I had taken her comments in a negative way. I don't know how they could possibly be taken in a positive way, but I really didn't want to have a confrontation with her; I just wanted Michael's to make it right. Then she said again that it was just the way it was stitched that prevented it from being done any better.

There was some small satisfaction in being able to pull out the picture and show her that it not only could be done better but had, in fact, been done better by another framer. She seemed a little surprised but just shrugged her shoulders, made no other comment on it, and gave me the gift card.

It wasn't a great experience, but I did at least recoup the cost of the reframing, and I've certainly learned my lesson for the future. From now on, I will either take the trouble to lace, stretch, and mount it myself, or I will hire a real professional.