Handmade Samples

Lots of Samples

Various frame corner samples that are in the process of being made.

Frame Samples

I am slowly in the process of changing my frame samples so that they are mostly handmade, as this is the main part of my day to day framing work. I will still keep a small selection of pre-finished, off-the-shelf mouldings, but the vast majority will be made by me.

Black Gesso Frame

This frame sample is covered in gesso, the base paint is red/brown with black on top. The paint is rubbed through, and then it is finished with shellac sealer and wax.

Samples

A selection of frame samples that I am trying to make in between doing lots of framing work.

Wide Oak Frame

This wide oak frame is one of a few samples we are making at the moment. This cassetta profile is 4" wide and is made up from three sections. The finish is stain, shellac, and wax.

Gilded sample

I did not take a photo of the bole stage, but the colours were Georgian orange and Georgian red with some areas highlighted in black. The top photo is after gilding but before the final faulting, the bottom photo is during the antiquing and distressing stages.

Spray gesso sample

This Carlo Maratta sample has been given a couple of coats of gesso, this fills in the finer detail of the ornament a little, but personally I think this slight rounding and blending in of the ornament gives a more carved or hand crafted appearance. I think some compo ornamented frames both new repro and antique, have ornament which can look a little  bit mass produced, with unbalanced designs which just look excessive. On really good carved frames the gesso would be recut around the ornament, and the detail sharpened up with metal tools to give real crisp definition to the carving.

Stacked frame samples

A couple of new frame samples, both cassetta profiles. The top one is simple and will be quite contemporary, it is made from three mouldings. The bottom one is more classical with an egg and dart outer section which sits on top of a flat slip with shot beading, a mitre leaf will go over the egg and dart moulding. The flat middle section is oak which is butt jointed instead of mitred, and the inner frame is a normal moulding cut backwards to use the rebate the other way round to normal.

Compo moulds

Using some of the moulds I made recently, I have taken lots of impressions of ornament today for various jobs. Some of them were for this corner sample, the reason the sample has a mix of brown coloured compo and white Magic Sculp is that I used up all my ready made compo and did not have time to mix up another batch.

Carlo Maratta sample

 

The gesso frame at the top shows the base profile I will use to make a reproduction 18th Century Carlo Maratta frame. The middle layout shows one variant with four runs of ornament, and the bottom photo shows a simpler version with three runs. Lots of different types of ornament can be used on these frames, I am working on making a sample of the simpler version with gadroon inner, ribbon and stick middle, and half leaf and flower outer ornament. Next stage will be to make the moulds for making the composition ornament.

More mouldings

The last two mouldings have been cut for this sample, they will be oil gilded and then fixed to the frame. The next photo of this will be the end result.

Samples...

The two samples from a few posts ago, a little further along. The walnut offset corner has been made nice and smooth and two ripple mouldings have been glued in place. The poor fitting of the rosewood insert was intentional as my original idea was to have a moulding going around it, covering the join, although I now wish I had made it perfectly flush. This would have not taken much more work and I think the extra moulding may be a little too much. Anyway we will see how it develops.

Samples and mock-ups

These two samples are a little different to the usual handmade frames I make, they are amongst 6 samples I am making up for a very good client. There are no strict design ideas, just a guide, so I can try some new things. The more traditional cassetta frame will be quite conventional, with the outer egg and dart moulding and the inner shaped with shot beading moulding being water gilded and given lot of ageing and antiquing. The walnut flat will be polished and I may add some gilt patterns although I have not quite decided on this yet.
The offset corner frame will have the little rosewood square inlaid in the hole, and some shaped mouldings on the inner and outer edges. The other four samples have not been started yet, and these two may end up looking nothing like my original ideas!

Gilding samples

Today I was gilding these corner samples and also some frames for a big order. There are 20+ more frames to be gilded next week, some of these can be seen in the photo above.

Gesso samples

These frame samples have been made for an artist, the are all finished in gesso with some different wax finishes, you can't really see the difference the the photos, but there is a slight variation.

New samples

I've been meaning to make these samples for ages, I had to change the router bit on the dovetail jointing machine (Hoffmann) today for the big neoclassical frame moulding. There are 3 sizes of router bit and the keys are made from plastic, although the middle size also has some keys available in oak, beech, ash, and aluminium which can be used for some decorative effects.

Usually the key is only seen from the back, but with these I routed the dovetail all the way through the moulding, from the top we have:
ash frame, oak key, with liming wax

oak frame, aluminium key, with black wax

oak frame, ash key, with Harrell's antique wax

oak frame, beech key, with finishing oil

Gilding progress...

Here is the next stage of making the wide cassetta frame, which Mark has been water gilding today. He also finished some lovely burnished samples, in 23.5ct gold and 22ct moon gold. The Duncan MacGregor paintings are all ready and waiting to be delivered, and various other jobs have been started and finished today, can't believe another week is nearly over!

Frame samples

These water gilded and painted frames have been made by Mark, who started working with me in April. They have been made from offcuts of moulding and can now be sold in the shop.

Samples

Here are a few samples that we have been making recently. It is often the case that a finish will be adjusted for each painting or individual job, so we don't have that many on display in the shop. I have wanted to try and standardise the finishes and increase the number on display for quite some time, as there are a number that we use regularly. A finished sample with the exact colour references, paints used, and how it was achieved will make it a lot easier to make our regular frame effects.