A corner sample

This corner sample is made from a moulding that comes pre-finished with gesso, this is then ready to be painted with bole and gilded, or finished in some other way. The fact that the moulding is already gessoed, means it saves time not having to apply the gesso by hand and then sand it down. Although the overall finished look is not quite the same as a frame made from barewood and prepared in the traditional way, it is a good alternative.

Lamb update

It has been very warm and sunny this week, the average for April is about 12 oC, but it has been over 20 oC for most of the week. The lambs use the shade behind the workshop to chill out.

Next day repairs

More float mounting!

This mixed media work on aluminium is float mounted in a 12ct white gold box frame. I've spent some time trying out different methods of float mounting these aluminium panels. This method uses an aluminium channel which is bolted through the 3mm mountboard and 3mm back. The artwork is fixed with a specialist acrylic foam tape which is designed specifically for bonding aluminium to aluminium.

Cake blog update

This is the latest cake at the workshop!

Contemporary gilded box frames

Preparing a frame for gilding

Finishing the walnut frames

Both were glazed with Artshield UV acrylic, the mount and undermount is cotton mountboard, then there is a foamboard filler, and the backing is MDF. The long frame has an aluminium brace on the back, to provide strength and secure the long lengths of the frame.

Long mount

This 70" long mount was too big for my mount cutter so I had to use a long metal rule and a hand bevel cutter that runs along a channel in the straight edge. The standard size for mountboard is 32" x 44", with a good selection of boards available in the 'Jumbo' size of 44" x 64". Over this size and the choice of mountboard is extremely limited, with only museum quality cotton board in a couple of colours. The board I used for this size of job was 48" x 72", in white. Although for even bigger jobs there are larger sizes available at 48" x 96" and 64" x 86". Above these sizes, or if colours other than white are required, then mountboards can be spliced together.

Big walnut frames

These walnut frames were made for two large limited edition prints, the smaller one is 32" x 50", and the long narrow frame is 23" x 70"

Walnut is a lovely wood, but it was quite difficult to get the long lengths required for these frames without knots or other faults in the timber. The corners were joined with dovetail key joints.