The frame in the clip is an A4 wooden frame whose front panel opens on magnets. The frame stays on the wall. You pull the front, the drawing that was in it drops into the stack behind, the new one goes in, you press the front shut. It takes about a second, which is the whole point: a frame you have to lift down, unclip and re-glaze is a frame you change twice a year.
What it actually is
A wooden frame, about 34 x 25 cm on the outside, with an A4 opening and a clear acrylic front instead of glass. Behind the acrylic sits a white bevelled mat, and behind the mat are two elastic bands on small metal rotating plates that hold the whole stack flat. The front is held by magnets in the frame; there is no clip, no turn button, no tape.
Why the drawings stay in it
Because there is room. About fifty A4 sheets live inside the frame, more if the paper is thin, so the frame is both the display and the folder. The one on the front is this week's. The rest are a stack your child can flip through, which is a different object from a box in the wardrobe: a box is storage, this is an archive they can reach.
Portrait or landscape
The traceless hanging hardware in the box works both ways round, so a tall drawing and a wide one both get hung properly instead of being turned sideways. If you hang a row of them, pick one orientation per row and let the drawings inside do the varying.
What it is not
- It is not archival. Acrylic is not UV glass, and a drawing in direct afternoon sun will fade in a year like any drawing would. Hang it on a wall the sun does not hit.
- It is not a museum mount. Nothing is taped down; the sheet is held flat by the mat and the bands. That is what makes the one-second swap possible and it is also why a curled sheet will show a curl.
- The hinge side is fixed, and the supplier will not let us pick it. One of our own buyers also noted the hinge attachment is a bit approximate. It opens and shuts fine; it is not furniture-grade joinery.
The honest reason to own one
Children make art at a rate no wall can absorb, and throwing it away in front of them is a small, specific cruelty. A frame that changes in a second means the newest drawing is always up, and none of the old ones went in the bin to make room. That is the trade: display and storage in the same object.
Three colours, natural wood, white and black. It is here, and the colour guide takes about a minute if you are undecided. Sold only at peekdoodle.com.