COMPO - Compo - compo

Discuss Picture Framing topics.

PLEASE USE THE HELP SECTION
WHEN SEEKING OR OFFERING HELP!
Post Reply
vintage frames
Posts: 1349
Joined: Tue 12 Jun, 2012 6:05 pm
Location: West Wales
Organisation: https://www.dermotmcardle.co.uk/
Interests: Making picture frames
Contact:

COMPO - Compo - compo

Post by vintage frames »

These are some freshly made cakes of compo. It looks rather like underbaked scones.

IMG_3316.JPG

This compo is a made by melting roisin with linseed oil and pouring that into hot hide glue. The gooey mix is then added to a heap of whiting and the resulting dough kneaded until an even texture is achieved.
For ease of working, the compo is divided into small cakes and allowed to cool.
This amount of compo cost about £5 in materials.

Once cool, compo sets to a hard plastic like consistency but remains flexible for up to several days.
To use the compo for casting it is heated in a steam chamber until soft and then pressed into a mould. After several minutes cooling, the compo can be removed from the mould and is set hard enough to allow a knife to cut away the cast impression.

IMG_3317.JPG

With that set aside, the waste is reheated, combined with some more compo and further pressed into the mould again. And so it goes on - and on - until you get sick of the sight of it. Totally full-on process with no time for a sit down or a cup of tea. A lonely day with only Radio 4 for company.

But that's only if you have to do a whole load of frames. Once the castings have cooled for a day or so, they are warmed and glued onto the frame sections with hot RSG.

IMG_3319.JPG

Happy days . . .
Affordable Gilding Course for Professional Framers-https://www.dermotmcardle.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/dermotmcardle/
Post Reply