The Framers Forum

Hi.I don't suppose this moulding is still about.A customer wants me to match it.Think its from 20 odd years ago.

Simons 'VIC' range. Discontinued.

Thanks for your help and your speedy reply.

Wow! that's a blast from the past, used to use that a lot, but that don't help you , sorry

Haha. Thought it looked like an oldie. No problem.

Funnily enough I've had some lying about for around 20 years! Only recently I decided to use it up by painting it to make a mirror for my bathroom. Daughter in law immediately said she wanted it..... I said "over my dead body" which is probably when she'll get it!!

There were a few mouldings with that particular finish knocking about once. They looked a tad bilious to be
honest. I had some scoop-type stuff that I didn't know what to do with so I did similar. Gave it a coat of manky -coloured
paint and sanded back a bit. Even added a few woodworm holes. I transformed it.

Out of interest, when you've got a moulding with a distinct pattern like the OP's, how would you run the pattern? Would you run it in a clockwise/anti-clockwise direction round all 4 lengths, which would mean that the pattern on one side would run up, but on the other side would run down? Or would you have both sides running in the same direction, in which case what would you do with the top & bottom? Hmmm... [goes off to ponder...]

Surely, when you have a moulding with a directional pattern you have no choice because of the profile and the rebate?

That's a good point. With moulding in a length, what David said.

If you are applying the ornaments to a bare carcass the there are circumstances where left and right-handed patterns
can be used.

Like this one:



You would have to put a small ornament over the middles where the two parts meet.

It works for this big chunky pattern (Gadrooning) with a very directional look, but in most running patterns you don't notice.

** I didn't do that one btw.

Thanks for all the info and the mirror does look great. Learnt a bit about following the pattern too. Bonus.

As Prospero points out, the gadroon style ornament usually radiates out from a central point, so on a single side it goes left and right... this is the same for quite a few patterns, for example a bunched leaf frame is basically a running pattern (see pic) but the main ornament goes out from a central flower... but of course these are frames where the ornament is applied (or carved) after the frame is cut and joined, corners would have acanthus leaves or some other ornament to eliminate the need to worry about how the corners meet.

Where can you buy the ornaments to stick on the moulding? Are they readily available?
I'd thought about making a particular frame but wouldn't be able to carve them.

There's not a big enough market for manufacturing framing ornaments in the U.K. these days. Some people mould their own, either from proper compo, or synthetic materials. It's not impossible to do, but you need customers who are willing to pay proper prices to make it worthwhile.

Even if you bought the ornaments ready made, the rest of the job is still fairly labour intensive, so you will need to charging quite a bit more than you would normally charge for an off the shelf swept frame and customers willing to spend the right about of money will often be knowledgible and discerning, so you will need to be at least as knowledgible and capable of real craftmanship to make this work.

Having said all that, everybody has to start off knowing not a lot, but if you are willing to do your homework and learn about the history of frames, how to make them and practice untill you have perfected your skills, then things become possible.

A good selection of compo ornaments can be bought from a USA supplier called Bomar Designs, pretty expensive way to do it though. There are various UK makers who would be able to make a gesso frame and apply ornament for you to then finish. But a lot depends on what ornament you want, and the moulds they have.

Chicmouldings do some mouldings that might be useable. They seem to be aimed more at furniture and for use on larger items but I haven’t looked at all their stock. Can be found at www.chicmouldings.com

I've dabbled with corner ornaments in the past with some degree of success.

Attempts at casting my own didn't turn out too well. At one time you could buy 'Pasta' ornaments - sort-of wood dust
bound in resin. They could be softened to conform with the frame profile and worked quite well. Having said that, they
were expensive and there tended to be a lot of rejects/broken ones. I don't think they are made anymore.

This was the one and only frame I made to reach a 'saleable' state. The corners were from Lion and came in a two-part set.
Applied to a moulding with an existing running pattern. I had to build a jig to cut a flat area in the corner. The corners needed
a lot of filling and sanding to blend them in. All-in-all a lot of time involved and not really a practical proposition. I did it more as
an academic exercise. Looks quite good though.



The Frinton Gallery have a big selection of ornaments, and if you speak to them nicely they might make you a custom design that
is not in their regular range. Far better to buy frames (they do compo-only) with the ornaments applied. Their stuff is first rate and
not too expensive as they are making them all the time so have got the equipment and expertise.

You can get many designs in compo from George Jackson in London as well...

https://www.georgejackson.com/compositi ... ions-index

Jules007 do you have an image of the frame style you want to make? Might know where you can get something similar...

Framemaker Richard wrote:You can get many designs in compo from George Jackson in London as well...

That's interesting Richard. I'm sure I remember asking them for a few feet of one casting and being told to "sod-off" and stop being a nuisance. Have things changed?

I've never had any from them, was originally told about them by a frame restorer in London... maybe they are only interested in high quantities, seems they concentrate more on the architectural plaster work than composition...