In The Frame

Creative 10 call their show 'In The Frame' because their chosen format is a simple frame, six inches square.

The Frame is plain white and opens like a book. Two stretchy transparent films come together to hold the item, and magnets keep it shut. It comes ready-made in a plain white cardboard box.

The Frame can stand or lie flat, swing from a hook or hang on a wall. Folk can pick it up for a closer look without touching the goods, and can hold two side by side to choose between them.

At the Point of Sale it's just popped back into its box along with an envelope from the maker - style without overheads.

This can't ever be a truly level playing field since not every medium sits equally comfortably in a such a small enclosure. So the Elegance behind the Simplicity lies entirely in how each artist adapts their own medium to the brief.

Sue Bulmer's black-on-white pen illustrations need little or no adaptation. They look as comfortable in the Frame as they would on a page, or indeed in a conventional frame. Natural habitat done well.

Similar in everyday frame-friendliness are Louise Presley's collages of old photographs on textile backgrounds. But unlike a conventional frame, the clear margin she leaves around the cloth draws-in the surroundings beyond: the gallery's wooden stairs have infiltrated this image harmoniously.

The tautness of the film provides a firm grip on Janie Withers's much heavier machine embroidery. She too allows spaces around the fabric which allow the décor to sneak in.

Sue Crawford's translucent silk paintings fill the Frame, and in direct light they are crisp and clear against a white wall. But the see-though Frame also allows luminous backlighting. Especially if standing or hanging near a window, these images change subtly as the day passes.

The other translucent medium is Barbara Coulam's recycled glass pieces. They love basking in vibrant backlighting without visible means of support.

A heavy yet fragile form like this takes protection from the Frame and might well stay in it for ever. Yet like many of the other pieces, it could also be taken out once safely home, and the Frame used just for storage.

Since mosaic is flat enough to be framed, one challenge for Julie Vernon's is to scale her designs down into a mere six inch square.

Somehow while doing that she's also preserved the chunky sense of solidity that mosaic implies - here side-light picks out the depth in the glass of the outer ring.

Scaling-down is an even bigger issue for Gavin Darby, whose usual metal animal sculptures are big, heavy and distinctly bulky.

Jeweller Rachael Dunn is faced with the opposite problem - how to fill the vastness of a six inch square and still sell at a Recession price?

She slashes the material cost by using base metal, and sustains the Value of the pieces by design and execution. Look very close, and tiny burrs and toolmarks bear reassuring witness to her skill with hand and eye.

If silver is too expensive to fill a Frame, then surely twigs must be too cheap? Which could be why willow sculptor Rachel Carter adds Value to her tightly-curving willow shapes with real gold and real silver wire.

I like the clean look of uncaptioned Frames, but it leaves her no obvious way to highlight or explain these precious metals.

Kirsty Taylor boldly tackled her own need to explain by building captions into her pieces. Some are striking Sock Monsters that come with deliberately dyslexic love-notes that the right person would find irresistible. This one reads: "I once was a stray sock without partner or toes, now I'm your friend to take where you goes"

As for grouches who mutter, 'I can make my own one for nowt!', Kirsty also shows necklaces of undisputed Value.

Creative 10 is a business collaboration, so how does the uniform presentation add up commercially?

I got a 'snapshot' from their exhibition at The Beetroot Tree Gallery, where all ten artists made sales, either of Frames or Commissions.

This exhibition encompassed far more than selling Frames:

+ They gained art community respect by winning a fortnight's gallery space in the face of stiff competition.

+ Each artist gave a feel for their usual scale and style through a separate signature piece, also for sale.

+ As The Beetroot Tree also attracts people to its shop, café, garden and hands-on workshops, it has given them broader public exposure than a purely fine art venue.

+ Crucially, people who liked what they saw placed commissions for additional work, usually with personal themes.

While I can appreciate all that, the Frames have caught my imagination and I'm keen to find out how they sell when media compete head-to-head.

Who is your money on?

Each Frame was pitched at £30 to take away on the day - no red dots and no pesky collection trips. Yet many customers came back anyway, some puffing up the stairs breathless to see if their favourites were still unsold.

Here's how the Frame sales split down - at this one particular show - in the same order as the images:

15% Illustrations2

No Collage

25% Embroidery

10% Silk painting

5% Glass

15% Mosaic

5% Sculpture

5% Jewellery

No Sock Monsters

20% Necklaces