deep bevel mounts foamboard

[danchip1]

Greetings!

I was quite inspired whilst at the Lion stand at the SF and have started to experiment with different finishes, paints etc.
Is there a satisfactory way of getting a smooth finish on 5mm foam board bevel? I have tried Everest paint, PVA and gesso primer, several coats, with no joy.... The liquid sinks into the bubbles in the board! Or is it a matter of wrapping said bevel and then painting that?



Thanks in anticipation

[Roboframer]

Yes, wrap it first, or just wrap it with something already the colour you require, in paper or fabric, if paper, this can be peeled off long mount board offcuts. You can also gesso and gild a wrapped bevel, real or fake gold leaf.

[danchip1]

Thank you for the speedy reply!!!

It leads me onto my next question.... Is there a definitive wrapping method for deep bevels? I did one earlier and the third attempt was very acceptable but is a fiddle and took a while. It would be impossible to explain how i did it in words! The way i did it falls into the category of..."one wrong cut and it goes in the bin" !

[Jonny2morsos]

Here is an attempt to describe how I do it (bear with me)!

Usually I start by splitting the bevelled foam strips down the middle into two pieces and if I am using the colourmount tapes which are wider than most I split these down the middle too. This gives you twice as many deep bevels for the same outlay. Any extra you need to make up at the back of the mount can be done from off cuts you have lying around.

Peel the backing off the tape and align it with the line drawn on top of the foamboard about 1cm in from the edge. Stick the tape down carefully making sure you have no creases or air bubbles. Do not try to wrap over the angle yet. When you are satisfied turn it over so the side with the tape applied is facing down and press it down on a clean cutting mat and in one movement lift up the back of the foam strip so that the bevel is now in contact with the cutting mat. The tape should now be sticking to the bevel. Now the tape just needs to be stuck to the underside of the foamboard. That's it done! It does need a little practice to begin with though so keep trying.

Next you have to fit them to the mount but as you have not asked we will leave that for another day!

[CanvasChris]

Check this link... http://theframersforum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 153#p47153

courtesy of Robo... saved it special for my own use, when I get time to try it.

[Roboframer]

Earlier I made a long-winded post and when I submitted I got 'Internet Explorer cannot display this webpage'

AAAAAAAAAAGHHH!!!

So, thanks for posting that link which I'd forgotten about. Since then I've tweaked some things, which were in what internet-feckin'-explorer could not display.

Gist was though that it's all massive profit from stuff you'd (probably) normally toss - and forget the double sided tape and/or your dry mount press stuff, it's not as re-positionable as starch paste and costs far far more, as does any adhesive that you don't make yourself. You pay for convenience - a huge spud costs about 6p and a bag of chips weighing less costs £1:20 - etc.

Don't buy pre-bevelled strips, bevel the edges of your own skinny offcuts, or bevel the centre of not-so-skinny offcuts and get two bevelled strips with one cut. Don't buy the self adhesive tapes, peel the surface papers off your own skinny mountboard offcuts.

Money for nothing and the chips are free.

[prospero]

Rose&Hollis do some plain sections that serve very well if you want deep painted bevels on a mount. The handiest one is A293 which is about 30mm wide - 6mm thick. They also do one (A231) which is thicker (9mm) and wider (70mm) and a variation of this (A245) which has a cove instead of a bevel. I have used both as under mounts. I make the wooden bits first and underpin then. Then cut a top mount and fix it on top. You have to be very accurate with the sizing of the top mount and the board has to be exactly square to get a good alignment. (Unless you are one of those flash g*ts with a CMC. )

[danchip1]

Sorry, I think i mislead...

The way I am doing it is to cut the aperture directly into the foam board, exactly as i would for a normal mount. I end up with a window in the foam board with the four bevels already there and ready to go.

Is there a good technique for cutting the wrapping into the corners?
This is the bit which is tricky and am wondering if i have missed something, unless of course it is easier to do it the bevelled strip method, but this seems a bit of a lengthy exercise compared to the way that i am attempting!!

Thanks

[Jonny2morsos]

Your problem is going to be getting the corners neat. The four strip method means the corners butt up to each other nicely and to the overlying mount.

[Roboframer]

Easier with fabric than paper as well.

[prospero]

There is a way you can do the wrapped bevel on a window, but it only really works on std thickness board and then only with stretchy fabrics like silk. If you drymount it using film rather than tissue and put the drop-out in place on top of the fabric, it will push/stick the fabric neatly into the corners. Then when it's cooled, cut the middle out leaving a small margin and make diagonal cuts into the corners. Fold the flaps over to the back of the mount and put back in the press for a quick squeeze.

Of course you can wrap bevels on a already-cut window, but there is a magic angle that you have to slice the corners to, and doing it consistently is more good luck than judgement. All-in-all the four strip method is the elegant solution for perfect results all the time.

This uses pre-wrapped strips. Just the same if you make your own.

[youtube]UHUTmMEwPc0[/youtube]

[Roboframer]

If you wanted to cover the whole thing, including the bevel with something then you could do that and it could be any depth or shape, but if it's just the bevel below another mount then it would be easier, and cheaper, to use bevelled strips.

[Nigel Nobody]

There is a way you can do the wrapped bevel on a window, but it only really works on std thickness board and then only with stretchy fabrics like silk.

I've done quite a few fabric wraps on 8 ply mats (slightly more than double standard mat thickness) with non-stretchy fabrics. Almost all the wraps I've done have not been stretchy fabrics.
This resulted from attending two fabric wrapping classes by Baer Charlton in Vegas in 2008. Frank's Fabrics (USA) has a great glue for this. I think it's an EVA glue which can be heat pressed to make a better bond. I've tried other EVA glues available from here, and they just don't work the same.

Applying a fabric wrap requires some special techniques, but it's not that difficult. Corners are tedious, but I wouldn't try to do a wrap on standard thickness foamboard. It's just too thick. Much easier to wrap four straight pieces and put them together as in the instructions for bevel accents.

[danchip1]

ok, thanks everyone, I sense there is no easy solution to my issue, I will try to do the bevel strip method and see how that goes. That was a top tip about peeling the top colour paper off and using for wrapping, I had a lovely "suede" effect board which i tried and it came off lovely and was perfect for wrapping and looked great! Thanks again.

[danchip1]

PS - Prospero, thanks for posting the vid, very informative, I will play tomorrow with this method, though I dont think i will be wont be replicating the music !!!

[prospero]

Picking up on what Ormond was saying about board thickness, I have always regarded the what I call the standard stuff as 6-ply (app. 1.5mm). The stuff that art shops sell in half-sheets as 4-ply (Daler brand anyway). 8-ply I think of as 2mm which I also call double-thick, but it's double 4-ply.

Like old paper sizes (Fololscap, Double-Elephants and all that...) this can make things slightly ambiguous. But as long as we all know what we mean it don't make no nevermind.

I think this nomenclature is a hang-on from the days when boards were actually made by sticking thin sheets together. Some boards are still made like this, but most are formed all in one lump.

[Roboframer]

4-ply being standard thickness (usually 1.4-1.5mm) and 8-ply being twice as thick, works for me. Many '8 ply' boards are two 4 ply boards bonded together; you can see the faint line on the centre of the bevel/edge and sometimes there are de-lamination problems, and I'm talking Nielsen-Bainbridge 'Artcare' So I don't buy any 8 ply boards any more, I make my own by bonding two 4-plys together with starch paste - cut-to-size first as well, not whole sheets. Very economical and an unlimited colour range as long as the boards are pasted back-to-back and the bottom board has a surface paper the same colour as, or as close as poss to, the core.