The Framers Forum

Hi,

I wonder if you could help me identify the supplier of both of these mouldings please (see attachment). As you can see one is terracotta on the side and the other black, look like gold leaf on the face.

Thanks in advance.
Jo

Can you post a picture of the mouldings you are trying to identify?

And welcome to the FF

Peter.

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your reply, I did attach a photo, see attachments. I thought I followed the instructions about including an image, but couldn't seem to get it to open in the body of the message. I'll try again.

They look a bit like some of the mouldings from Compomouldings. http://compomouldings.com/npr_series.php

Have a look at P2, P5 and P6. I'm not completely sure, but worth a look!

Just uploaded these for Milesofframes , in case any of you want a look

I would say it's none of the ones Mark has mentioned, now you can see them clearly

Thanks for uploading the photos Steve N. Not sure what I did wrong when uploading the image.

Do they look hand finished?

Thanks Mark Lacey, No I don't think its them, do you think they look had finished?

Oh yes! I would say that they are hand finished and very nice looking too!

Thanks Mark, but that's not the answer I was hoping for I was hoping they were finished mouldings!

Looking at the photos, they looked like the frames had been finished over the mitre joints after the frames had been constructed. Are you saying this is not so? If they are ready finished mouldings, then the finish would not be continuous across the mitre joints, in which case my assumptions would be wrong.

Are you interested in producing your own hand finished frames? Those of us who make hand finished frames, with little more than an aspiration to be able to produce such frames ourselves with no idea if we can achieve that standard. All of us on this forum, who produce hand finished framing had to start from nowhere at first.

If you are interested, then don't be put off and think that you can't do it. We all had to learn, but lots of us never looked back, once we had got there, Why not you as well? There's plenty of framers on this forum who will help point you in the right direction, if you want to give it a go!

BTW, I see from your profile that you are located in Henley-on-Thames, which is an affluent location where high quality framing and hand finished framing would be the name of the game and it is with this thought in mind that I think I can see where you are coming from and frames of this sort of quality ought to be your forte.

There will be ways that you can take this forward, either as hand finished frames, or using really good quality factory finished mouldings and very skillfully filling and hiding the joining of the corner mitres. Don't count this as the end of this thread, give us a few more clues of where you are wanting to take this and lets see where this thread can take you.

Whilst I don't know who has made these samples, they are a fairly simple watergilded profile. Most framers who do their own gilding would have these in their sample range. Maybe try these people -
http://www.darbyshire.uk.com/picture-frames/
You should expect to pay between £15 to £20 per foot.
Or do as NYAF suggests - learn how to gild!

The flat profile is particularly easy to gild and there are quite a few bare wood mouldings that have convenient raised flat portions, that are idea for adding a nice gilded feature to a frame. I was taught to gild as a bookbinder, which is a somewhat different technique, gesso never gets used on books, but bole is still used, I was taught not to wash my hair for a few days before doing some gilding, so that I could brush the gilders tip on the back of my neck to help pick up the gold leaf, this technique does not appear to be taught as part of normal gilding training.

Nothing comes close to water gilding with real gold leaf. All the other substitutes, can produce impressive results, but real gold leaf reflects light like nothing else, but finding customers who will pay for gilding usually means that you have to be in the right location and rarely happens where I am. Having said all that, I don't think that anything comes close to gilding to create a tremendous reputation for your framing business. "Exeter framer" framer, who used to be a member of this forum, before she retired, used to produce lots of part gilded frames all I have to say that they were stunning and she was completely self taught.

If you are in the right location, it's well worth learning to gild and if you do so, I don't think that you will ever look back.

That's refreshing to hear someone who recognizes the beauty of real gold leaf. I can appreciate that a lot of framers would think that offering gold or silver leaf samples would frighten most of their customers away because of the price. Yes, that would happen if all you offered were a few well handled chevrons. But if you hung in the gallery a well framed image with a simple gilded profile, I guarantee you'd have people saying - "I want one like that."

That's true! They can't take their eyes off of it. It's only a select few that will decide to pay the extra, but real water gilded frames look great. I need to be honest about this. so as to not mislead anyone and the fact is that I have not been asked to produce a gilded frame for a very long time. A lot depends on being in a good location where customers have a high enough level of disposable income.

If you are in that sort of location, then getting into gilding maybe your logical direction for the future, but it's not necessarily a simple decision to make. Learning to gild and then finding that you can't find enough local customers is something that may be a possibility, if you don't properly check out the potential possible market first.

Don't be mistaken that it may be just a matter of adjusting your prices to suit what your local customers will pay. It just does not work like that, you need to charge enough to make a living and trying to cut corners to get the price down is not going to be a sensible option. However, there is sometimes a half way option of only part gilding frames, instead of fully gilding frames and this can save money, without meaning that you are working so hard for inadequate financial reward.

I think anyone can add gilding to their repertoire and sell it no matter their location. It really has to be how it's sold - marketing, presentation and all that. NYAF was right when he said gilding is at it's most effective when added to a frame as a detail. A wide whole gilded frame can often look a bit boring or even vulgar. "Less is always more."

Milesofframes wrote:

frame queries.docx

I wonder if you could help me identify the supplier of both of these mouldings please (see attachment). As you can see one is terracotta on the side and the other black, look like gold leaf on the face.

The moulding with black sides and a gold face looks fairly similar to Sorrento https://www.lionpic.co.uk/p/39745/24mm- ... e-Moulding.