Rustic Moulding?

[Cookie]

Hi I'm in Spain on hols & when in Mijas a couple of days ago we were in a photo art gallery some very nice work by a spanish guy most of his work was framed in a 50mm flat med oak looking moulding very very rustic almost like driftwood lumps & bumps worm holes the lot, it looked really good with his sepia prints I assumed it was hand made solid timber but then on a workbench saw some off cuts & it was MDF! anyone know of a similar moulding available in the UK? I cant imagine it's unique to Spain.

Happy New Year!

[prospero]

Easy to make Cookie. Just done a big one round a bunch of elephants. I used pine, but any wood will do.

The elephant one was made with 90x20mm planed stock with a raised hockey-stick on the inside to make an edge and form the rebate. To 'rusticate' the wood I first used a small milling bit in a Dremel at around 45deg angle to score deep, random grooves along the grain.
Followed by a coarse handsaw dragged sideways along. Finish off with a wire brush on a power drill. This makes a really rough texture. For less extreme texture and softer woods, just a wire brushing might suffice. It's quite good fun. There are lots of other things you can do. Dent it with various blunt instruments. Bang nails in and pull them out. A handful of gravel under a wood block which is then hammered produces scars that look right.
This was all done before joining.
When the frame was joined I gave the whole thing a coat of shellac and when that was dry a good going-over with coarse sandpaper to get rid of and whiskery splinters. The rest is down to what colour you want it. It this case I gave it a coat of quite dilute acrylic paint - brown+green. Sort of khaki colour. After that a coat of white+raw umber wiped off. You have to fiddle around a bit at this point to get the effect you want. Clear wax and polish to finish off. You want it to look rough but not feel rough.

For woodworm, the best thing I have found is the Dremel engraving tool. It makes a neat hole and is more convincing than a drill. Also you can trail it over the surface to simulate sideways tracks as in wormy timber that has been sawn.


You can also do it on smooth wood using ripple paint bulked up with powder pigment. A light brown is as good as anything. Put a dilute coat on first just to cover the wood surface and follow with a very thick coat - slap it on all over and don't be too finicky. Grab a old comb or even a fork and work along the grain. As the paint starts to dry (which is quite soon so work fast), the thick paint will churn up and form a very convincing rough wood texture. Let it dry thoroughly. Overnight is best. Then sand off any lumpy bits along the edges or bits that don't look quite right. Then apply colour washes as before.

[Not your average framer]

In my locality there are many old cottages and barn conversions, so there is a good market for rustic frames. My techique is to use driftwood effect mouldings to simplify the process and maximise productivity.

My typical mouldings for handfinished rustic frames include Simons 1504, 1507, 1508 & 1509 ranges. Sadly, there are no longer as many deeply grained mouldings to choose from as there once were, but you can still stack other mouldings with the driftwood mouldings to create more options.

Generally, I lightly, but thoughly sandpaper the surfaces of the moulding a little before applying the handfinishes to avoid any risk of the paint not adhering properly. I recommend this, because these moulding often have a slightly waxy feel to the normal factory finish.

I also often find that the wastage factor with these mouldings can be greater than normal, due to knots occurring in the wrong places, so it is important to incorporate an adequate margin in your pricing strategy.

[prospero]

I have some seriously manky bits of wood in the backyard. Rotten to the core with 200 years or so of being nibbled by woodworm. Things growing on it...... One day I will have a go at trying to stabilise it without destroying its essential character, so it can be made into frames.
I also saved all the slats off my old fence when it blew over a couple of years back.
If I ever get all the old moulding stored in my big ex-chicken hut used up, I vow to make the chicken hut into rustic frames.

[StevenG]

Any chance of a few pics??

[prospero]

Well here is the chicken hut.



....with old fence panels ripe for re-purposing.


This (too big to post image) is some of that pinky driftwood
that was very popular a few years back. Given a coat of yucky brown paint. The wormholes done with a Dremel+ engraving tool.

[prospero]

And this is another one I did a while back. Started as a nice planed bit of pine from Wickes.

[Not your average framer]

Started as a nice planed bit of pine from Wickes.

Hi Peter,

That's really nice. Can I ask how long it took to do the dremel bit on the wood?

[prospero]

Not as long as you might think. The milling bits are very fierce, in fact you have to be a wee bit careful not to overdo things. I did an almost identical one a couple of weeks ago. 30x36 canvas. I probably spent 1/2 hour doing all four lengths. The thing is, you don't have to agonise about niggly defects as you are in fact making the whole issue 'defective'. You just have to ensure you get an even, but random degree of texture over the whole surface. Knots are no problem either. Ignore them and they virtually disappear after you have applied the paint.

And it's dam good fun into the bargain if truth be told.


Shot blasting is another way to get the effect. Works very well on pine as it has hard rings with softer wood between. Coarser the grain the better. But it is somewhat messy. Needs a dedicated booth really.

btw. They had a shot blasting kit for sale in LDL's one day. Amazing the stuff they get hold of. What really took my attention was that they described it as a Spot Blasting kit. Hope some young adolescent didn't get the wrong idea......

[prospero]

btw2.

I got one of these a few weeks back. If you are working with reclaimed timber or even re-chopping old frames it's very handy to check for broken off rusty nails and other embedded metal fragments. Does what it says on the can.
And about the same cost as regrinding a set of Morso blades.