Ideas for under colour base from different colours of bronzing powder finishes.

[Not your average framer]

Some years ago I bought quite a big selection off different colours of bronzing powders in ! Kg jars from Robersons I always intended making use of them all, but my health problem have by and large held me back from doing much of what I had planned. Well One of the pine moulding which I bought a Reasonable amount of was a dome shaped moulding with a nice traditional style sight edge lip (Simons 0PIN/0025). This has the advantage of me being able to sand a sligth burrs of of the outside of the corner joints by rotating the finshed frames lightly on my bench top belt sander, which produces very nicely finished corners in the bare wood and and slight lack of smoothness on the inside of the frames just disappears under the applied finis.

I am thinking that this could be an ideal moulding for producing traditional style bronzing powder finished frames. Amoung my bronze powder colours are both bronze and blackened bronze and I have been wondering what base colours would be the traditional colours for the underlying base cots to use from a distressed finish for these. I must admit that if I have ever seen such finishes anywhere, I certainly don't remember any thing about it at all. I am also thinking about using various colours in combination with normal gold finishes, not onl as a possible underlying colour for distressed finishes, but also as a delicate tint of be mixing with the bronzing powder finish, or as washes for over glazing this gold.

I get quite a bit of sunshine shining of the contents of my shop windows at the right time of day on sunny days and I am thinking that a blaze of really nicely lit up handfinished mettalic frames might produce a really stunning effect. Also I am not bad at doing more modern style handfinished frames as well, so I might have a go at one, or two of those as well.

Any one got any suggestions?
Thanks.

[prospero]

I too bought a big selection of metallic powders. I discovered that the effect is more dependant on the basecoat rather
than the 'gold'. I mostly use 2.5 gold. If I want silvers I (used to) use the fine silver powder which seems to have been withdrawn
from the market for safety reasons. The available stuff comes in little pellets that you have to grind and I can never get it fine enough.
I have a little pot of silver powder which I have yet to try out.....

For the trad gilded finish I use Red Oxide acrylic which is more or less distressed according to taste. For a more 'antique' oxidised gold
I use red oxide which is dibbled over with a very dilute mix of black/burnt umber and the gold applied quite thinly and sparingly.

A very 'mellow' gold can be got by using a yellow ochre/raw umber mix (with a dab of white). This is dibbled over with a dilute mix of
raw umber + dab of white. The gold is laid of sparingly - maybe thicker on the high points. After the gold coat is thoroughly dry, a thin wash
of raw umber/white is applied and wiped off so it is heavier in the depressions. Another magic combo is to use a hookers green/burnt umber
mix to make a sort-of Khaki and apply the gold over that, but wiping some of the gold off to make 'worn down' sections and generally distressing
it. It is for this reason I bind the gold in a varnish that is solvent based and soluble when dry with turps (or white spirit). This is given the same
wash treatment as the yellow.

For more decorative effects I use an off-white base stippled/sponged/whatever with various colours. The gold needs to be applied very
thinly so the basecoat 'ghosts' through.

I've found that 2.5 gold will do 99% of the finishes you will ever need. Using a lot of different ones only complicates things and
makes little difference unless you want something like a copper or a rosy gold.

There are of course lots of variations. Best not to overthink it.

[Not your average framer]

Hi Peter,

Lots of interesting thoughts there. I'm really quite interested in doing something with the bronze and the blackened bronze as I thing that the might be an interesting and different effect. Getting a dead smooth finish over cheap pine mouldings is not always as easy as I would like, but I blast the wet paint with a hop air gun for each coat of paint and usually this does not allow the woodgrain to rise. The other thing which always hides the woodgrain is the bronzing powder and wax finishes. these tend to be self leveling, so any raide woodgrain gets completely hidden.

I've got an idea that commercially produced blacken bronze finished are usually used in conjuction with black, but my instincts are not to do this, as I think that this is likely to be too dull and un-interesting. I was wondering about a multi layer sponged base of red, yellow and a lightened brown just distressed on the edges only, hopefully to produce something eye catching which will stand out from the blackened bronze without looking out of place. I don't do much of plain gold frame slips anymore, as I like a much less plain effect these days.

A sponged effect of yellow ochre, red and black rubs back to something quite different sometimes, with a really subtile medium grey warm biege wash other the gold it can have a lot of the look of some old world charm. I don't usually think that these colours look ount of place of something, where the frame is a more modern sort of shape and look. I do a reasonable number of more modern looking stuff, with a bit of an old fashioned twist and visa versa.

Thanks for your thoughts,
Mark.