Brush for handfinishing with very coarse bristles

[vintage frames]

Very inventive and loads to think about. From your photo, I thought the underlying surface was schlagg gilded on a red base and greyed gesso. Over all that is a brown scumble, dragged and combed.
Or is it just the photo?

[prospero]

That's a very classy moulding. Hard to tell from a photo, but it looks like it's layers of various colours that have been scrubbed back at random. Can't really tell the sequence of the layers, but I think you could get a reasonable approximation if not an exact facsimile.

Bryon Mouldings (Remember them? ) did some of a very similar ilk and I have some samples which I once tried to copy. A few basecoats of off-white to simulate gesso - slighlty stippled to give a bit of texture. I gave these coats a blast with a heat gun to bubble the wet paint. Knock off the blisters when it's cooled and you get a nice pitted effect. Followed on with a fewby thinish coats of black/brown mix. Dabbed on a few random splodges on gilt varnish. More browny washes on top of this. When it's all dry, attack it with rough sandpaper and various sharp implements to tear though nearly to the wood in patches. Wax and wirewool and a dusting of rottenstone followed by a good buffing with a yellow duster and bingo. Great fun.

[Not your average framer]

Or is it just the photo?

It's not easy to tell the exact method, even looking at the real moulding!

[vintage frames]

It still looks like foil gilding.
'Nice to talk about handfinishing though.

[Not your average framer]

When it's all dry, attack it with rough sandpaper

Yes, that has definitely been done to expose the beige, but not elsewhere! As far as I can tell, the black layer is on top of the beige and the eau de nil is clearly the last paint layer to be applied. As for the sequence for applying the red and the gold, I cannot be sure!

[Not your average framer]

Yes, It does looks like foil gilding and I would say that's what it is, but I think it would still look very good using Liquid Gold paint! The distressing of the gold is very uniform and in dead straight lines!

[vintage frames]

If I was making that frame, I'd paint on some greyed gesso, or even a grey primer paint, paint over with red oxide and then either a water based or oil gold size.
Stick on the schlagg leaf and let dry.
Then smooth on a length of brown vinyl packing tape and rip off again to break up the gilding.
Rub back a bit further with coarse wire wool and then varnish with some shellac.
A brown scumble could be made up with 50% boiled linseed oil, 30% turpentine (or white spirit) and 20% terrebin driers (can't spell that), then thickened with whiting. Mix in then 50/50 burnt umber and raw umber oil paints.
This is dragged out along the profile and when dry, given a final shellac varnish.
And of course, a rub with some wax works wonders.

[Not your average framer]

That sounds really good!

I plan to do things a little differently to maximise the speed of production and minimise my costs. As I have already said, I'm using two cost effective pine moulding profiles from Simons, the first of these is PIN/2 stacked with K/114, plus 12mm x 12mm pine stripwood and the second profile is PIN/5 by its self.

Thinking about it I probably won't bother bubbling and removing any areas of paint as this takes time and I'm not convinced that this will either add to sales, or profit, so I won't bother! If I wanted to copy the same colours I would use a base coat of Craig & Rose "Beige" 1829 chalky emulsion, thickened with some cheap talcum powder and made more durable by adding a little bit of Cascamite wood glue powder.

The Cascamite adds sufficient durability to reduce the risk of sanding through to the bare wood while scuffing through subsequent paint colour and layers with coarse sandpaper. The black would be Farrow and Ball "Off black" estate emulsion again with a little added Cascamite, because this type of paint needs the extra durability. (It's off black because I liike my blacks to be some what muted).

The other colours will similar types of paint, because they look more expensive with a nice dead matt finish and a dead matt sealer on top. Also, all of these can be set very quickly using a hot air gun!

BTW, PIN/2 is virtually knot free, but PIN/5 is reasonably knotty. I heat up the knots and remove any resin which comes out from the knots by scapping and sanding and the seal the knots with shellac before painting. I find that this proceedure works very well!

[prospero]

I think we should have a hand-finishing challenge. Try to replicate the finish and post what results.

[Not your average framer]

To make it fair, everyone who wants to do this would have to agree to use the same currently available bare wood moulding and there would have to be enogh time to allow everyone to experiment and get their techniques worked out.

I've had a bit of practice doing this sort of thing: http://www.theframersforum.com/viewtopi ... ing#p64893

[Roboframer]

I think there should be a handicap for experienced hand-finishers.

[Not your average framer]

What's the point? Only experienced handfinishers, or people with some very specific abilities would have any realistic chance of attempting this sort of task. Also how would you know who is experienced and who is not? How on earth is anyone going to be able to judge one framers work against another when all you have to go on are photographs taken by different people using different qualities of cameras?

Obviously Prosperro, myself and several others already know how to do this sort of thing, but are you going to exclude those like us, to be fair on anyone else who may not have as much chance of doing this at all? There's no prize and not much chance of fairly picking a winner without judging the actual handfinished samples and this is unlikely to ever happen. I don't think this was ever intented to be all that serious!

[Roboframer]

Vintage frames has given very clear instructions, I reckon, with a bit of practice, I could produce something that would match and so could many others and if a competition was to happen then clear rules need to be set to avoid legal dispute.

I recognise that moulding, it's an old Arqadia one from a range that was about as popular as a fart in a space suit and I may have some left (which I could enter, making out I'd done it myself) - you might even have to get permission from Arqadia to run this competition to CYA on patent rules.

I'm thinking of running a book, PM me with your bets and I'll get some odds sorted.

[prospero]

No big thing. I just thought it would be interesting to see the different outcomes that people come up with based on a common remit.

No winners. No prizes. All comers welcome.


"The Hand-Finishers Handicap"

Sounds like a horse race.

[vintage frames]

Myself, I'm not really into competitive framing, but I'll watch with interest if any wish to have a try. Looking at the photo of the moulding, I'm not too sure its' a hand-finished frame. The straight distressing lines that NYAF describes suggest the use of a finishing wheel, as in machined production.
What could be done is to take a plain gilded moulding, like the example shown and partially remove some of the finish with paint stripper and meths, then give it a good scrub with coarse wire wool. To look authentic, the mitre corners would have to be "blunted" with strong sand-paper. Then re finish the frame with some dark umbers and wax.

[Not your average framer]

I can't say that I'm into competition framing either. it's just a bit of fun.

BTW, It was pretty obvious that someone would have a left over bit of this moulding and that's why I suggested to anyone who wants to do this we all use the same currently available bare wood moulding. May I suggest either Simons PIN-2, or PIN-5. Obviously equivalent pine mouldings of the same design from other suppliers, (of which there are many), would also be o.k.

Afterwards we could ask questions about each others methods, which I think would be an informative discussion. I think that someone should say that there is no right, or wrong way to do this sort of thing. After all, we all have of own methods of doing things and there is no need at all to produce a perfect copy of the original moulding.

Are you up for this John (Roboframer)? I think that you could do a pretty good job of this!

Anyone else up for this?

[IFGL]

I think I have nailed it

[Roboframer]

I can't compete with that, I'm out!

[Jamesnkr]

If I was making that frame...
[Finally] when dry, given a final shellac varnish. And of course, a rub with some wax works wonders.

I plan to do things a little differently:

They look more expensive with a nice dead matt finish and a dead matt sealer on top. Also, all of these can be set very quickly using a hot air gun!

I love the diametrically opposed positions!

BTW, I shall be teaching the broken edge effect on the hand finishing training course. You'll be amazed when you find out how I get that effect!

Taken from NYAF's other thread on 'faking', would you perhaps please be so kind as to elaborate. Thanks!

[Not your average framer]

The broken edge effect was done with cuningly torn masking tape. Neat trick eh?