Money from offcuts

[Roboframer]

We all have long skinny strips of board hanging about, they are useful for slip mats, making things flush ... struggling now!

Fabric and paper wrapped deep bevels are a great use though - I charge £4 per foot to the glass size for these, so for a 20x 16 frame, regardless of the mount aperture, that would be £24.

Some suedette/velour fabric, some strips of 3mm foam board and some thinner strips of grey mount board..

deep bevels 001.jpg

Some strips cut from the fabric and the surface paper peeled of the mountboard strips (after I'd made them even narrower)

deep bevels 002.jpg

I wanted deeper than 3mm so I bonded the foam board together to make 6mm.

deep bevels 004.jpg

Put a stanley type blade in my mount cutter and set the depth like this

deep bevels 003.jpg

Will continue in the next post due to IE/forum problems with long posts!

[Roboframer]

Will continue with pictures only - if any explanations are required, don't be shy....

deep bevels 005.jpg

deep bevels 006.jpg

deep bevels 007.jpg

deep bevels 011.jpg

deep bevels 013.jpg

deep bevels 017.jpg

deep bevels 018.jpg

DSCN3918.JPG

[Nigel Nobody]

Excellent photo tutorial, John. I like this idea a lot! Haven't used two thicknesses before but can't wait to try it.

One question - do you place glue on the bevel or just on the front and back of the panel? The reason I ask is that when I put glue on the bevel, I get problems, so I have determined not to do that.

[Roboframer]

Normally I'd use 5mm foam board but bonding two 3mm boards together is easy and quite quick - saved them from the bin anyway.

I don't put glue on the bevel, no need and it just seeps in to the foam anyway. I paste the back (bottom) of the strip, lay it on the fabric/paper, let it go off for a while, paste the front (top) of the strip, let it reach the right tacky-ness and then pull the fabric/paper on to it. A mini roller would be better than a brush too, thinner coat would go off much faster, but then you'd need a tray of glue, as opposed to just slapping it on straight from the bottle and spreading it, which is what I did above.

A bit of ATG tape, as shown, helps but is not really needed, also foam board is a bit of a pig, wrap too tight and you can crush the edges, probably a bit of that going on above, but it was done quickly just to show the physics; practice makes perfect. Mega-thick (4.4mm) mount board would be better than foam board, but I don't have much call for that and nor do I have many skinny 8 ply offcuts about to bond together like this and bonding three or four strips of 4-ply together would just write the profit off with the time, so those are used for their surface papers only. It's a case of making the best from what you have most of. I buy absolutely loads of foam board, but for anyone that does not, It could be worth buying 5mm foam board specifically for this purpose if you can sell it - there would be very little wastage.

It's a good idea to have a mad morning or afternoon making large amounts of these wrapped strips, as opposed to doing them to order - takes up a lot of space.

[Framer Dave]

Very nice, and a great way to make god money from what would otherwise be waste.

I'm not sure if you mentioned it or not, but when you bevel the ends, cut them so that the long bevelled edge and the bevelled end form slightly less than a 90 degree angle. That way they will be sure to fit nice and snug when you pinwheel them and give you really nice tight corners.

These look great with handmade marbled and other handmade papers.

[Roboframer]

I'm not sure if you mentioned it or not, but when you bevel the ends, cut them so that the long bevelled edge and the bevelled end form slightly less than a 90 degree angle. That way they will be sure to fit nice and snug when you pinwheel them and give you really nice tight corners.

I didn't mention it, (was going to add some text above each photo but didn't realise how late it was)! but in photo #11 that's what the arrow means and you can see which way to move the strip away from the cutter to achieve that snug fit at the front.

[stanhol]

This is fantastic. Many thanks for taking the time to post such comprehensive instructions.

Is there any materials you would avoid?

Thanks again,

Sandra

[Jonny2morsos]

Very nice, and a great way to make god money from what would otherwise be waste.

What's this, giving all your profits to the church!?

[Roboframer]

you can see which way to move the strip away from the cutter to achieve that snug fit at the front.

..... forgot to say that it would be the piece to the LEFT of the cutter bar that would be the end used.

[Roboframer]

Is there any materials you would avoid?

Only non 'acid free' boards and papers really. You can buy pre-bevelled boards and self adhesive decorative tapes but that would mean spending money! They are probably not acid free either.

Here's another - this one is wrapped with hand made Japanese tissue and stuck with wheat starch paste.

tissue bevel.jpg

[Custard]

Wrapped bevels in grey look terrific with B&W photographs, it's something I always recommend.

But I had a frustrating start with the pre cut bevel boards from Lion and Wessex, they are cut at a different angle to the Keencut (I think it's a compromise angle, halfway between the Keencut and the Fletcher angles), so the corners always had a tiny gap that spoils the look IMO.

This route of cutting your own and wrapping yourself is the only way to get the job done perfectly. But I see I'm going have to summon up my courage and start charging by the glass size rather than the aperture size!

[Roboframer]

There's always alphamat artcare bevelled accents but it's the cost of these that inspired me to do more of my own, plus the limited choice. With alphamat artcare foam board and surface papers I'm producing the exact same thing too, as long as I use the best adhesive.

I've always charged by the glass size, I used to charge by the aperture size for mount fillets but now they are by the glass size too, it all has to be made flush to the glass size after all, plus it means they, and wrapped bevels can be pre-calculated on my price chart.

[Framer Dave]

What's this, giving all your profits to the church!?

Oops! Only ten percent!

[Trinity]

Sorry chaps, just a couple of basics I need to understand. The long strip length, bevelled and covered I understand. But could you please run through photo 11, and the meaning / implication of bevelled ends / snug fit as I don't yet grasp it. This might be the daftest question, but when you've made them up do you cut them to length on the morso.
I really appreciate you sharing this technique Robo, this one I've printed off.

[prospero]

Trinity. This is a tuorial for Bainbridge Bevel Accents.

Unfortunately it only seems to play the beginning.

II'll post it anyway in case the prob is with my PC.




....hmmmm the YooTube embedding don't seem to work either so I'll post the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHUTmMEwPc0



It's playing OK now.

[Dermot]

Here is a link that is working http://www.megawood.com.au/mat_website/ ... videos.htm

[YPF]

Lion also produce a "How to" pdf you can look at, I sometimes find it useful to follow a printed set of instructions than trying to remember what was demonstrated/stated on a video. Hopefully this is the link to the relevant bit on their website:

http://www.lionpic.co.uk/InfoStore/Info ... 9&docid=98

Steve

[Trinity]

Thanks for all the assitance on this one fellas, scales from the eyes and all that when you see it.

[Not your average framer]

Hi John,

Very nice demo. I've been doing paper wrapped bevels for a few years, but seeing the suedette velour wrapped bevel has been a revelation to me. What a brilliant looking effect! I just can't wait to try it for myself.

I don't use foamboard for wrapped bevels at all. I like to be able to stick the paper directly to the bevel as well as the front and rear faces of the board, so I use thick mountboard instead. Having said all that, I can see that the little bit of stretch in the fabric would work well with the foamboard, so maybe I'll try the fabric with the foamboard instead.

I've got a few sheets of Daler 2.5mm board which is easily bonded together to make 5mm thick and recently I bought some Arqadia 3.5mm conservation mountboard, which I like very much, as it cuts so well.

I think I may be about to get hooked on fabric wrapped mounts and I don't suppose that I'll be the only one. I think you may have really started something!

If this catches on big time as a result of this thread, you may just become the U.K. "Fabric Wrapping Guru".

[Roboframer]

If this catches on big time as a result of this thread, you may just become the U.K. "Fabric Wrapping Guru".

Dunno about that Mark!

I've done Baer Charlton's fabric wrapping class in Saratoga Springs NY - (what a great trip that was) and have his 'fabric wrapping 101' DVD. When I came back I went mad in the fabric warehouse in Waterlooville, but never got around to doing anytthing with the fabrics I bought. That roll of suedette is one of 5 in different colours, and I bought much more, plus I stock all sorts of things that can be used for wrapping, ribbon, organza, linen, tulle, calico and all the needlework fabrics you can think of, plus some quilting fabrics!

Then I went to Vegas and bought 400 bucks worth of flexilble fabric fillets from Frank's Fabrics (Baer Charlton is a rep/agent for them and was on the stand) plus a quart of their fabric glue and other accessories. Not done a thing with those yet either!

Just been too busy, but fabric wrapping is something that's just not done over here, which is why I want to do it and one day will; the wrapped bevels are a start.