About Us
Re-framing the industry
Mount is a small team of frame-makers, printers and designers based in rural Somerset. We believe art doesn’t have to be exclusive. Art can be anything with perceived beauty – an old postcard, a sketch, a technical drawing. We also believe that art should be protected and displayed in simple, beautifully designed frames that are hand-crafted with truly sustainable materials.
Bill Coperthwaite says it best in his book, A Handmade Life: “Surroundings are important. The dishes and clothes we use for every day are more important to our visual sense and wellbeing than those used only for special occasions. What matters most is not expense but awareness. And what is beautiful is easier to live with and care for. If we had fewer things and more meaningful ones, our homes and towns would be less cluttered, less ugly, and more peaceful. Our surroundings have a direct relationship to how tired we get and how happy we feel.”
This considered approach to life helps us tread more lightly on the earth, as well as enjoy it more. Today, Mount fulfils our desire to work sustainably whilst satisfying our shared passion for bringing the images we find and love to a wider audience.
The Place
Our workshop is on Shatwell Farm, next door to the Newt in Somerset. Formerly Hadspen House, it was sold by our landlord and collaborator, Niall Hobhouse, in 2013 and is now a world-famous hotel, spa and garden.
Close by are the market towns of Bruton and Castle Cary, with their excellent independent shops and nationally-renowned restaurants.
This part of Somerset is a thriving centre of culture – from nearby Hauser and Wirth to the world’s largest festival of performing arts, Glastonbury.
Craft
We source, print, frame and package our products ourselves, meaning we have ultimate quality control over every stage of production from digitisation through to printing, framing and packaging. Built to last for generations, every frame is handmade in our Somerset studio from ethically sourced materials, natural paints and finishes.
Capturing the soul of a piece is an essential part of our practice. If a print is taken from a page in a sketchbook, we will try to replicate the tactility of that page. We experiment with materials and printing techniques in order to align as closely as we can to the feel of the original.
At Mount, each piece is given a new lease of life. Reworked into limited and open edition runs, our hand-crafted frames and mounts are designed uniquely to best compliment each print. We consider the frame to be as integral to the design as the print, therefore we sell each piece as a finished product.§