Gilded Tray Frames

White Cassetta Frame

A corner sample of a tray type cassetta frame, finished in white, a style that is sometimes referred to as a St. Ives frame. As a guide to prices, a frame like this sample to fit a 12" x 12" painting costs around £25 in materials charged, and the same in labour and overheads, with VAT the total cost is £60

Gesso Trays

A couple of tray frames coated with gesso. The inner sections only had 3 coats, but the face and sides had 7. Next comes sanding and smoothing, probably the least enjoyable aspect of making handmade frames.

Large Tray Frame

A large tray style frame for a painting on board.

Deep Canvas Tray Frame

Deep canvases are often hung without a frame, which I think is how they are intended to be displayed, sometimes also with the sides painted. But occasionally they need to be framed. Here I am making a tray frame for a deep canvas by using some strip wood for the sides/front, and the back is made from a profile that is usually used as a slip. This frame will be gessoed and the face will be gilded.

Tray Frames

I have lots of orders for canvas tray or float frames at the moment, some will be painted, and others gilded, this is just a few of them cut to size and waiting to be joined together.

Flamingos in a tray frame

A painting by Jeremy Houghton in a gilded tray frame.

Grey tray

The canvas tray frame from a few posts ago has been painted with a dark grey paint, it will need a couple of more coats before being sealed with a matt acrylic varnish.

Moon tray

This frame is actually a repair job, as the gesso was flaking off all round the edges. When it came in I was concerned it was one I had made, as I have done similar frames for the gallery and artist before, so it could have been one of mine. But upon sanding back the gesso I thankfully saw it was not one I had made; the corners were joined with cross pinned nails and no underpinner wedges were used, and the fillet was also nailed into place; both techniques I have never used before. The next post on this frame will show the distressed and burnished 22ct moon gold. This style of frame is used with canvases or panels, where a gap is left around the edge of the artwork giving a floating or shadow effect. The profile has lots of names: tray frame, float frame, canvas tray, floater frame, float tray, and L frame to name a few combinations.

Corner detail - float frame

Painted frames

Here I am painting these various tray and float frames, they have been sprayed with gesso and sanded, painted with acrylic primer undercoat, and now they get a couple of coats of Farrow and Ball paint. The last stage will be a coat of acrylic sealer.

Tray frame

We have made a few float frames recently, this tray frame is made from two mouldings joined together which are then painted black. A wooden subframe is used so that the painting sits back from the face of the frame by 4mm.

Back at the workshop

I am back at work now after a great summer holiday. Here are a couple of deep frames which are used to float frame some paintings on board. The wood is obeche and is finished with clear wax.

Tray frames

These deep tray frames (also called floater frames) can be used to float mount canvases or panels, and can be finished in any number of different ways. Usually a gap of about 5 to 10mm is left around the canvas to give the floating effect.

Finished floater frame

Canvas float frame

This canvas float frame was damaged so I have just tidied up the finish with black casein paint on the inner part, and red casein paint under the water based acrylic gold paint. The profile is a simple 'L' shape, the canvas sits in the tray and is held in place with screws. The canvas has a gap of about 1/4" all round which gives the floating effect. The gold paint has been stippled on and is a very simple and cost effective finish.