Happy Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.
Wednesday
Georgian Hollow
This late 18th or early 19th Century hollow profile frame will be cut down to fit a slightly smaller painting, the gilding cleaned, and re-gilded where required.
Victorian Watercolour Frame
A very delicate little Victorian watercolour frame, a hockey stick profile, just 1/2" wide with elaborate corner ornament.
Tuesday
American Arts and Crafts Frame
An example of an American early 20th Century carved arts and crafts frame.
Swept Frame Ornament
A continental (probably French) swept Louis XV style frame, from the 19th Century. Many European frames have the ornament cast in a white plaster type composition, whereas English frames used a browny yellow composition. The composition on English antique frames develops numerous cracks over time, but the white plaster compo does not crack in the same way, a simple if very broad way to identify English composition frames.
Canadian Arts and Crafts
A nice example of a carved arts and crafts frame from Canada. This frame was made in the early 20th Century, but the design and style is based on English 18th Century Louis XIV style frames. Such as the one below.
19th Century Cassetta
A really nice and simple Victorian cassetta frame with tongue and dart inner pattern, little rosettes on the flat, and egg and dart outer. This frame was glazed between slip and frame, that is why the matt gilded slip is in near perfect condition. The frame has been over painted, but it is still a very usable period frame, and a good size at 8" x 10".
Antique Map
A last minute job before the end of year holidays, this antique map of Africa was already mounted but needed a frame. It has been framed in a decorative early 20th C frame which was just the right size. I think it looks really rather good.
Friday
Watts frame
A reproduction Watts frame that I am working on at the moment, next it will be painted with bole, and then gilded with 23.5ct gold leaf. The wood grain of the central oak flat is typical of Watts style frames.
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.
Gesso Painted Frame
Gesso frame with distressed paint finish, the mdf panel is floated on black backing.
The frame after it has been painted with gesso, and was then painted with a number of different colours.
Small Carved Frames
A selection of 18th and 19th century carved wood frames, good for framing watercolours and prints.
Sunday
Louis XIV Reproduction Frames
A selection of reproduction Louis XIV corner and centre frame corner samples, in various finishes.
Fluted Empire Frames
Here are two great examples of fluted second Empire frames, both have a really deep hollow shape. The gilding on the top frame is heavily distressed, which shows the blue/gray bole clay that is beneath the gold leaf.
Saturday
Some Frames
A couple of jobs finished today, the piece framed in the top photo has the paper float mounted so the edges of the paper are seen. A piece of foamboard under the paper raises it from the backing mountboard, creates a shadow and gives the floating effect.
The second frame has a single extra thick mount, there is a gap between the mount and the paper, this is created by having another unseen spacer mount. This is done because the artwork framed is a pastel, and sometimes small pieces of pastel can come away from the paper and drop down. The intention is that these pieces will fall down into the gap and not collect at the bottom of the mount.
Friday
Large Mount
I've posted in the past about large and oversize mounts and how they can be dealt with, links to previous posts below:
Oversize framing and Spliced mounts and Long mount
The blue mount in these photos is on a movie poster I framed recently, the mount has been made by joining two sheets of mountboard together, to give a mount larger than the standard size of 32" x 44" that this colour is available in. The top photo shows the join is unnoticeable when viewed face on, only really from the side or above can the join be seen, and even then only from a few inches away. I have another of these types of oversize mounts to do next week.
White Gold
This deep hockey shaped frame (named because it resembles a hockey stick), has a heavily distressed gilded finish. It is water gilded using 12ct white gold on the face and 9ct white gold on the sides, although you can't really see the subtle colour difference between the different carats in my photo. The leafing is intentionally irregular and patchy to give a rather crude looking finish!
Mount and Frame
A corner photo of a watercolour which is mounted, and framed in a gilded and painted frame.
Gesso Frame
Just another frame that has been coated with gesso, this is one of my favourite profiles. I am making two frames from this moulding at the moment, one will be gilded with 23.5ct gold and the other with 22ct moon gold.
Papier Ornament
This is another example of a papier mache ornamented frame, despite being very large at 45" x 62" rebate size, it is incredibly light weight.
Wednesday
Tuesday
Small Scoop Frame
This little frame has moon gold gilding, with the inner section is painted with colour washes. It will next have some wax and pigments to add more colours and to give a distressed look to the paint finish.
Frame Cut Down
The frame from the previous post after it has been cut down. The slip is painted with Farrow and Ball paint.
Saturday
Silver Frame Cut Down
This large 20th Century silver frame is being cut down to fit a smaller painting, the bevel slip fits the painting, and the silver frame is the correct size on the short dimension, but the long side will be cut down to fit.
Reeded Frame
A reeded profile frame with 23.5ct gold leaf finish, it has been gilded with gold size, next it will be sealed with shellac and then some wax will add a slight aged look.
Small Gilded Frame
This is the little frame from yesterday after it has been gilded with 22ct Moon gold.