Colouring the bevelled edge

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Rainbow
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Colouring the bevelled edge

Post by Rainbow »

I want to give a black bevelled edge to a white core mount. Please can anyone advise on the best technique for colouring a bevelled edge, and also what's the best brush/pen/ink/paint to use. Thank you. :)
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prospero
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Re: Colouring the bevelled edge

Post by prospero »

Mask the area where the cuts will be with 3M 'Magic' tape No. 810. Then cut the mount and colour the bevel
with something like Gouache. You will probably need 2+ coats. It dries fast.
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Re: Colouring the bevelled edge

Post by Not your average framer »

That brings back memories, I haven't done one of those for ages. There was a time when people used to really like painted bevels. I also did a reasonable number of painted mount reveals and bevels as well, which were more common. I still do those a once in a while I use acrylic gouache, or even plain acrylic paint. Such a really nice presentation, which also looked great in the shop window and customers really liked it too. It did not take long to do the painted reveals and bevels, because there was no need to mask off the area around the bevel. I somethings would do it when I had a couple of matching ready made frames, or when I could do a matching frame slip and mount bevel, which looked really classy. I must do some of these to go with some of the box frames that I am planing to put in the shop windows, for when I reopen.

It also works well when sticking two pieces of mount board to gether to make double thick mounts, as it helps to hide the glue line between the two mount board layers. I also used to do these for ready made frames, when business was quiet and I did not have much to be doing at that time. Knocking up nice things for the shop windows used to be a major activity in quiet months like February. I have not done much making up bits and pieces in more recent years, I don't know why, but it just has not been something that I had the urge to do anymore, As I've got older, I've rather lost the urge to do it, perhaps I need to revive it? I already decide to do more box frames, which used to sell well, so I may as well do the painted bevels and mount reveals as well. I am already expecting that I will need to do some things to give the sales figures a bit of a boost and this should be helpful.

Thanks for reminding me.
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Re: Colouring the bevelled edge

Post by Gesso&Bole »

I do this a lot, and although I do sometimes mask with magic tape as Prospero suggests, unless using gold or silver paint that can be a bit gloopy, normally I just do it by hand. I use a wide flat watercolour brush, acrylic paint, and put the brush up through the aperture, with a steady hand. Once dry (2 mins with the heat gun) a quick rub over the mount surface with 240 grit sandpaper on a little block and the front looks perfect.

I use a similar technique when making double mounts, I really don't like keeping all those different colours in stock, so I use paint, and sometimes wax as well to colour the reveal - sometimes before cutting the bevel, but often, particularly if I am using a thicker board as the undermount I paint the reveal and the bevel. Very quick, looks good, and saves keeping all those boards in stock.
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Re: Colouring the bevelled edge

Post by Not your average framer »

Painted deep bevels look amazing and they are still really popular as well! Customers often buy them to give as gifts, when I include them in ready made frames.
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Re: Colouring the bevelled edge

Post by Justintime »

Russ Wood of Grey Owl Framing has produced a number of books on this , some are available from Lion's or contact him direct at greyowlframing@gmail.com and he can supply PDF copies via email.
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Re: Colouring the bevelled edge

Post by Not your average framer »

We all get plenty of left over scraps of mount board and if we are quiet after christmas, it's an opertunity to made someready made frames with painted double thickness deep bevel mounts. Just glue two bits of mount board together and paint the bevels. I usually do them in batches as it saves a lot of time setting up the mount cutter to do a batch instaed of just one.
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Re: Colouring the bevelled edge

Post by Rainbow »

Thank you all, that's very helpful :)
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Re: Colouring the bevelled edge

Post by Not your average framer »

The supposed best way of doing this is to mask off the front part of the mount with scotch magic tape before cutting the bevel cutting though the tape. I've never found this completely successful, as the paint to easily creeps under the edge of the tape and this is in spite of burnishing down the edge of the tape. As a result I find that it is much easier to do it by hand with a lightly loaded brush painting by hand from the reverse side on to the inside of the bevel. With a little practice this works quite well. paint the corners of the mount cut out take a little bit more care, but it all comes with practice.

I've done this quite a lot with destressed gold oval mounts, where I use a gritty red paint of a double mount with a thin real and this beome an oval gold slip to fit behind a plain mount making it a triple mount in total, but in reality it only looks like a single mount and an oval mount slip. This is quite a successful technique.

Here is a link to a dramatic example and photo of a strong blood red hand painted bevel and reveal that I did some time ago. This hand painted reveal with over painted with a wet look high gloss varnish for a really dramatic effect. The customer who is in to this sort of thing loved the result.

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9429&p=77456&hilit ... unt#p77456
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Re: Colouring the bevelled edge

Post by Not your average framer »

Hand painted bevels and bevels, plus reveals are a good opportunity to a add extra value to a job. The cost of the paint is minimal, but it's an opportunity add some extra profit, which helps to increase you bottom line very nicely. Nice little specialist touches require practice and skill and not everyone can do these things. There is a reasonable degree of perceived value added by such special added details and many customers don't mind paying the extra, if the cost seems reasonable.

Cutting up left over scraps of moulding to make slips tends to come in the same sort of category as it also involoves neglegible cost and takes almost no time to do this with a band saw, or a table saw. I much prefer to use a band saw myself as band saws are not so potentially dangerous , as a band saw. Also a slip which has been created on a band saw needs almost no sanding down afterwards to remove any resulting rough surface finish. I use a bench top belt sander to give such slips a very quick and light sanding, which takes just seconds to do.

Speed and simplicity is everything, when doing things like this, if you are going to find this profitable to do!
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Re: Colouring the bevelled edge

Post by Steve N »

The way i tend to do it is, with the blank mount face up, measure in from the outer edge the width of the mount border + 5mm, make a pencil mark, when you have done all four sides, using 811 tape, tape along these lines, with most of the tape on the out side of the pencil lines you have just marked. Burnish down the tape, cut the mount as normal, using a nice new blade, what you should have now is a mount with 811 tape on the front masking the mount up to the bevel, apply your paint, when dry carefully remove the tape, do not leave on for too long as I have found it can leave a residue on the surface of the mount
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Re: Colouring the bevelled edge

Post by Rainbow »

Thank you for the very helpful contributions :)
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Re: Colouring the bevelled edge

Post by dmcgreen »

excuse the rookie question but what is meant by the 'reveal'?
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Re: Colouring the bevelled edge

Post by Steve N »

Hi dmcgreen ,
The 'reveal' is when using a Double Mount, it's the amount of the bottom mount you see when finished,
Merry Christmas by the way
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