Christmas and New Year shut down

The workshop is now closed for Christmas and New Year holidays, and will be open again on Monday 10th January, although I am having a longer break and will not be back at work until Tuesday 18th January. The workshop is all neat, tidy, and ready for 2011. 

We luckily have a considerable amount of work planned and booked-in for January, February, and March. I am very thankful for this situation, as business can be tough at the best of times, and the last year or so has been particularly hard for everyone. 

Happy Christmas and best wishes for the New Year to all my customers, and visitors to my blog, and a huge thank you to my customers for your valued business throughout 2010.

minor repairs

Silver leaf frame

This watercolour has been framed in a silver leaf, water gilded frame, which has been distressed so the red bole shows through. The surface is then sealed with an acrylic varnish to prevent the silver from tarnishing.

Carved frame

 

This rather nice hand carved fluted cove frame is probably from the late 18th or early 19th Century, I would guess that it is English. It has a very neoclassical or Roman look, a Carlo Maratta style perhaps? with its architectural inspired tongue and dart inner pattern, ribbon twist, and egg and dart outer decoration.

I like looking at the backs of frames as much as the front! Here you can see the mitres are joined with oak splines instead of nails.

A few of my paint brushes...

Journey home

Some photos above from my journey home this afternoon, I found it fine crawling along at 5 to 10 miles an hour, its when I met other traffic around the village of Willersey and my home village Broadway where problems occurred. A number of cars abandoned on the road side caused congestion, then people struggled to pull away without wheel spinning. 

As I got to Broadway, one driver was having particular trouble, some guys from other cars got out to help by pushing this person, who was stuck in the middle of the road, causing even more problems for other cars trying to go in the opposite direction.

The snow has reached us...

The snow has finally reached us here in Worcestershire, with a few inches falling overnight, and a good 10 inches during the morning and early afternoon. The 4 mile journey to the workshop was OK, although the journey back took alot longer. I brought back 6 frames that need gilding, and 2 that just need some little repairs. I can do this sort of work at home, as it looks like the snow will be here for a few days least, and I need to get these done before Christmas!

A few more frames finished today...

We actually got a whole load of frames and jobs finished today, here are just a couple of examples! 

The ornate gold frame just needed a slip fitting and some small areas of damage were repaired. The set of 6 prints have been framed together, mainly for ease of hanging.

Waiting for gesso

These 3 obeche frames have been sized, and tomorrow will be covered in gesso. I have 11 gilded and painted frames to get finished before the Christmas and New Year holidays, and another 4 to be done when I'm back at work in January. There are 5 frames waiting to be repaired/restored, and probably about 55 'normal' to 'awkward' jobs which includes cross stitches, prints, a medal with a certificate, acrylics on board, pastels, and various other pieces of art, which all need to be done before Christmas.

Ornate double swept frame

 

 

This rather nice, and well made little double swept frame needs some minor repairs, with about 6 areas of missing ornament. Its called a double swept because the back edge also has sweeping lines, as well as the usual outer, high part of the frame. I think the style is best described as Rococo.

Frames in the Glinka Museum, Moscow.

The Glinka Museum, in Moscow, has a large collection of musical instruments from around the world. They also have a very well presented museum dedicated to Russian and foreign composers, and the musical arts in general. These photos show some of the interesting frames in the museum.

Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture

A little monument to frames in Moscow

This monument is close to the Tretyakov State Gallery in Moscow, these photos were taken a couple of years ago. I have not had many photo-worthy frames at work this week so thought I would pick a few framing related images from past albums. 

The sculpture consists of three gilded frames of various styles, each surrounding a bronze artwork, and in the centre is a tree which is also made from bronze. There is a plaque, which I missed first time round, but next time I'm there I will see what it says.

Nice pair of compo frames, in for repairs.

Tom Hammick etchings framed

Tom Hammick at Campden Gallery

These really cool Tom Hammick etchings are from the Glyndebourne 2010 Opera Festival, they are for Campden Gallery. 
I have float mounted them and they will be framed in a simple white box frame.

Arts and Crafts

I've always liked American 20th century Arts and Crafts frames. This one is a classic style, I love the simple carved corners, and the whole return to good, honest craftsmanship of this period of frame making really appeals to me.

Charlie Calder-Potts

This big (80cm x 120cm), mixed media on aluminium is float mounted, glazed with ArtGlass anti reflective glass, and framed in a painted frame. The stunning painting is by Charlie Calder-Potts: http://charlie-calderpotts.com/index.html

Float mounted watercolour

This watercolour by Broadway artist Pink Harrison is float mounted in a limed box frame. The painting has a piece of 3mm foamboard behind it, the foamboard is cut 1/2" less all round than the image size, this gives the floating effect. It is fixed to the back of the watercolour with a water activated adhesive paper tape. The foamboard is then fixed to the backing mountboard. A spacer keeps it all away from the glass, and the frame is a simple limed wood.