The Framers Forum

That was an interesting post from Justin. So here I am putting myself in the firing line in the same way.

This is also an item I framed for myself (I am a massive Leonard Cohen fan). It’s a print done by a calligrapher who uses song lyrics to build up the picture.

I have used the very tall and skinny oak Moulding from Rose and Hollis, with corresponding oak spacer. These I have colored with an acrylic wash to match the picture and then waxed.

The mount has a 3mm reverse bevel black mount in between the thick and thin off white mounts. And yes I do like a weighted bottom!

I have been doing quite a few recently where I am adding quite a lot of depth with a skinny frame. What do you think?

What would you do differently?

You get that nice sort of relaxed feeling when you see something that is exactly right.

Top job!

Looks good to me.

I don't mind a bottom weighted mount on a landscape orientation but it jars for me on something that is portrait.

Is there a reason for the spacer, and is the glass in between the spacer and the frame?

Hi Jeremy,

I love it. I am a very big fan of oak mouldings and what you can do with them! Such a nice Job! I think that you may have really opened my eyes to some new possibilities. If that deep skinny oak molding is the one I think it is, I think that it has great possibilities!

Thanks both for your kind comments.

The answer to your question Peter, is that there's no real need for the spacer (yes the (AR) glass is in between the frame and the spacer) other than to provide a bit of drama.

I did wonder when I had finished it, if the red spacer was a bit distracting, and if it would have been classier with spacers made to match the mountboard.

I like it a lot. I love the spacer colour relating to the text colour.
Is that a 3mic bottom mount? Very Nice.
I can't make out the exact detail of the 3mm reverse black mount. Is it 3mm exposed with a reverse bevel or a 3mm black mount with a reverse bevel? Anyway the effect is great.
I've often done a slim mount on the piece and a thicker mount on top. Interesting to see it the other way around.
The proportions of the mount look spot on to me.

Hi Jeremy,

No, I think that you got the red spacer just right! That was an inspired choice.

The red spacer is creative and offbeat, so it suits the subject matter and enhances rather than distracts.

Very nice and thanks for sharing. I have a question or two if you don’t mind. You say you added an acrylic wash to oak. Was that just on the spacer with a reddish colour and did you mix water into the paint? Or did you also add the colour to the actual moulding, if so it looks a bit darker like a very nice distressed, shabby style of finish in dark oak? Why did you choose a reverse bevel in the black mount? Was it to create a bit of shadow and avoid the white core? If so would black core have done a similar job? (Sorry, that’s six questions )

Justin and Fitz

Thanks for the positive comments

Yes 3 micron undermount and black standard 1.4 micron mountboard cut with a reverse bevel to avoid seeing the white core and throw a tiny shadow. 3 mm of the black visible.

The Moulding I used was Rose and Hollis A354 oak with a matching oak spacer. The process was then

1. Quick sand of the oak with 180 grit
2. Water down acrylic paint with approx same quantity of water
3. 2 quick coats of paint, deliberately not very even
4. Sand with 320 grit until desired amount of paint left
5. Wax with Liberon black bison clear wax.

Thanks very much for response. Much appreciated.

top job, great mount cutting hand or cmc? i must say i really struggle
with think mount board, tend to avoid them at all costs!

Very good.

Hello.

Very nice framing indeed!

Where do framers go for framing inspiration and new ideas? Are there any particular websites or Instagram pages I should be looking at?

The sources of my inspiration varies a lot. In recent times, I have needed to move with the times quite a lot. I often need to offer a more contempoary look than I used to do, but very often it is more contempoary with a bit of an added twist. I used to get a lot of my inspiration from travelling through various town while travel to see members of my family, but I don't travel very much anymore so I do quite a bit of rehashing ideas from older samples of things I have done before.

I'm quite often just doing more modern variations of older themes. Right now, skinney frames with a painted, or stained slip seem to be quite popular. I also like to have various dfferent narrow frames in different depths, which give my quite a few different ways in which they can be presented. I get quite a bit of my inspiration from framing syles from the 1930's. They did a lot in those days with a basic black and a single contrasting colour to create a bit of added interest.

Apart from insta, Greg Perkins does posts on framing.academy and framers only which is always good brain good.