SUPPLIER PROFILE: RHONDA FEINMAN CUSTOM FRAMES
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By Kimberly Biesiada
or the past 18 years, Rhonda Feinman Custom Frames has manufactured faithful reproductions of historic period frames using traditional carving and gilding
techniques. The Queens, NY-based business also specializes in restoring antique frames. At the helm is Rhonda Feinman, who opened up shop in 2001 and has steered the growth of her business ever since, securing its place as a mainstay in the custom picture framing industry. In an interview with PFM, Feinman discusses her career as a business owner, the benefits for retailers of selling closed-corner frames, and where she thinks the industry is headed. After earning your BFA in art from Parsons School of Design, how did you find your way to framing? I fell into picture framing because I was working in the trade show exhibit industry around the time the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York was being built. It
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had no proper loading dock or loading facility at that time. I said, ‘No way am I staying in the exhibit business if I have to install any kind of large exhibits in that place.’ At that time, a high-end picture frame manufacturer
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offered me a sales job in 1986, which over time expanded beyond just sales. I enjoy the industry because it keeps me in the art business, which appeals to me as someone with a BFA. I’m able to use my art background. It’s an especially helpful tool now, when I’m doing a lot of historically accurate reproductions. 24 PFM July 2019
Feinman with dog Bali inside her Woodside, Queens, NY showroom. Her business, Rhonda Feinman Custom Frames, specializes in the manufacture of faithfully reproduced antique frames and gilded, closed-corner framing.
What made you decide to go into business for yourself? I left my job after 16 years with no plan of what I was going to do after. And after receiving job offers from competitors, I didn’t feel that I was going to be in a much better position than I was in before. I realized the only way to do it was to do it on my own, and do it my way. That’s really what it was about.
