Blue Silk and Gilded Mount

The inner mount is gilded in 23.5ct gold leaf using an acrylic gold size on dark brown painted base, it is then sealed with shellac. The top mount is blue silk. 

Black and gilt ripple moulding

This late 20th C ripple moulding frame was cut down from 20" x 16" to 14" x 16". Because of the gilt corners the frame was reduced in size by removing the unwanted sections around the middle of each long size. The back and rebate spacers were covered in hessian fabric and the canvas was float mounted on the backing.

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.

Large silk board

This large piece of ivory silk material has been mounted onto mountboard, it has been left under a sheet of glass to keep it as flat as possible. Next it will be given an iron to reactivate the adhesive and create a strong bond between silk and board.

Green silk

Here are some mounts covered in green silk fabric with a gold slip. The mount aperture is cut and then an adhesive is brushed on the mount board, the adhesive is left to dry. It dries to a slightly tacky surface so the fabric is then positioned and smoothed down firmly. A tacking iron is then used to reactivate the adhesive and create a good bond with the silk.

Fabric frame

This frame is a little different, it has been covered in fabric that was originally a sarong. The frame was made as normal, then the wood was sized and sealed. The fabric was carefully ironed to remove lots of deep creases. An adhesive was put all over the frame with a roller, when this had nearly dried the fabric was put over the frame and was smoothed down and trimmed to size. After some drying time, the fabric was ironed all over to reactivate the adhesive and increase the bond strength.

Bamboo frames and silk mounts

Here are two of the silk mounts from a few posts ago. 

Silk mounts and gold slips

Fabric covered mounts can look great, they seem to be very popular in America but for some reason they are not that big over here.
The mounts above are covered in a pongee silk with a gold mount slip.

First I cut the bevel edged mount as usual although the bevel was reversed which is common practice when you intend to add a mount slip (some people call them fillets). The silk was adhered to the face of the mount and the excess was removed from the aperture with just 3/4" of  overhang which could be folded round and stuck down at the back. I then put some double sided tape, called fillet tape, on the back of the mount close to the aperture edge. The gold mount slip was cut to size and fixed in place with the double sided tape. The bottom photo shows the mount slip has been covered with aluminium foil tape which protects the artwork from any impurities in the wooden slip.

Frame from the archives

I made this frame back in 2003, but it is still one of my favourites. The artwork is thread, glitter, and paint on fabric by Heena Karson. It is stretched over foamboard, this and the inner gilded slip frame are glued to a piece of 'invisible' anti reflective glass. This piece of glass is fitted in the rebate of the inner bevel frame which is covered in black fabric. There is then another piece of 'invisble' AR glass between the outer gilded box frame and the material covered frame. Finally there is a material covered backing, spaced about 10mm from the inner glass, this and the way artwork and small gilded slip around it are mounted on the glass make them appear to be floating. The gilded frames are water gilded in palladium leaf.