Broken Rebate

This antique slip (re-gilded at some point with metal leaf) has been damaged during shipping, pressure on the back of the painting has caused the rebate (rabbet) to split. 

Metal Leaf

A Spandrel Slip

This job was to use a 30" x 25" antique frame from my stock, to fit a canvas print of a 18th Century portrait. The picture was originally painted with an oval aperture, so a slip had to be made to copy the oval shape. The canvas size was actually 32 1/2" x 25" so the frame rebate had to be extended to fit. 

Spandrels and Arched Slips

A few examples of spandrels and arch-topped slips, with various ornament and decoration. Three example have composition ornament, the one above has a low relief floral design built up from gesso (pastiglia), and there is also a nice example of incised decoration which depicts a ship flying British flags.

A fabric slip

Linen covered slip

To fit a painting into this frame a wide gesso slip was used to fill the space between the two. The rebate on the slip needed to be increased considerably to accommodate the canvas. The gesso slip was covered in linen fabric.

Gilded slips

Lots of frame slips that have been water gilded in 22ct moon gold.

Gilded slip

Here are photos showing some of the various stages in making a gilded slip to fit an antique frame. From the sanded gesso surface to the finished effect.

Frame slip

This frame slip is about 30mm wide, I needed a smaller slip in the same profile for a job so I quickly cut the slip down on the table saw to the size required.

Slip rebate size

The rebate or rabbet width on frames and slips can often be a little narrow when framing paintings on canvas. The edges of the canvas can sometimes be patchy or untidy and have areas that need to be covered, and often the canvas will be unsquare which means even if the frame rebate is made large enough the canvas may not fit. 

The linen slip frame above needed the rebate width increasing to accommodate the painting, so it could be fitted into an antique frame. This was done after the lengths were cut to size, but before the slip was joined together. I did this using a table saw, just a few passes and it is done. 

Gilded slips

A couple of slips that have a grey bole base and are then gilded in 22ct moon gold. The support frames are made from MDF and just make it easy to handle the slips when applying the gesso, sanding, applying the bole, and then gilding. The outer frame is left in barewood and will be painted by the artist customer.

Wide rebate

This antique slip frame of mine is being cut down and used on an antique painting, the rebate has been extended as much as possible to cover some areas of damage around the painting. Next I will cut down the outer frame, which is an antique veneered frame, which has been supplied by the customer.

gold paint over gilding

This water gilded, late 19th Century slip had been overpainted with gold paint, you can see in the photo above how it has gone a lovely browny bronze colour due to oxidation. This layer of paint (it would have originally been gold) was easily removed with acetone, which reveals the original water gilding in gold leaf.
Why was it painted over in the first place? well the gilding is quite distressed and rubbed away in places. A classic cause of damage to the water gilding is someone giving it a wipe with a damp cloth, this removes the protective coat of size or ormolu and makes a mess of the surface. The more cleaning and rubbing, the worse it gets so the solution was to tidy it up with a coat of gold paint. The slip is not actually that badly damaged, and personally I think it looks good with some rub through to the bole.

Interior scene

This great little interior scene has been framed in a water gilded antique frame, it is glazed with anti-reflective glass, and there is an inner gilt spacer slip to keep the glass away from the painting.

Floral watercolour

This watercolour was rather poorly float mounted using masking tape, I replaced this tape with a suitable water activated adhesive tape and mounted it with a green/grey single mount with a gold slip, it was then framed in a 3" wide swept frame.

Finished gilded slip

The water gilded slip I have been working on was finished yesterday, here is the result. The work on paper is fitted in the rebate, which has been lined with aluminium barrier tape to prevent any impurities in the timber migrating to the art, an inert foam rebate tape is also used to cushion the image and prevent any damage to the artwork. The glass is 19th Century, and the job is finished with a museum under mount and Correx back.

Slip is painted with gesso

The slip I am making for the carved frame below has been painted with seven coats of gesso. Next it will be sanded.

Making a flat water gilded slip

This project is to fit a painting into a carved antique frame, using a flat water gilded slip with a bevelled inner edge, which is only 3mm thick. It started as a 9mm thick slip frame (no rebate), a cabinet maker friend put this through an industrial planer until the required 3mm thickness is reached. This is far to thin to join together securely on the underpinner so a backing frame is made from a deep box frame moulding. This backing frame is constructed with simple butt joints joined with dovetail keys, I could have saved alot of time and just mitred the backing frame and joined on the underpinner, but the butt joint will give much more stability and strength to the mitred slip that will be on top. This will help to reduce the mitres opening up over time. So the slip frame was then glued with polyurethane adhesive and clamped to the backing frame. Once the glue was set the excess outside edges were cut off on a table saw, to fit the rebate of the antique frame. 

Incised detail on mount slip

The corners of the mount slip were incised with small flower designs, and also painted with bole.

The frame and slip are sprayed with gesso

I brushed on a coat of gesso (made from rabbit skin glue and whiting), and then sprayed on two coats. When the gesso was dry it was sanded smooth.