The Story of a Picture Frame
Posted: Thu 26 Jan, 2023 12:26 pm
This is a rather simple frame I made the other day.
It's for a frame shop in London which carries some of my profiles and this one's called a thin replica Georgian Frame.
For the sake of having something to talk about I'll describe the process that goes into making it.
For this frame all I needed was a length of F10 and an equal length of F6 glued onto it.
Then it was a happy day feeding it through the spindle moulder.
I say happy because this is relaxing and creative work. You keep adjusting and changing cutters until you have the exact profile you're looking for.
With that done, the frame is cut and joined before setting off to the gesso chicken shed.
This is my splendid old spraying compressor which I bought off E-bay.
It cost me £70 and is built like a tank and oh so quiet in operation.
I use this to blow gesso through my trusty spray-gun which you can see is well kept and in meticulous condition.
Spraying gesso is definitely the way to go. You could spend hours building up layers of gesso with a brush, whilst ten minutes with a spray-gun will do the job in just two heavy coats.
After the frame has dried, always overnight, the gesso is sanded and lightly polished to an even finish.
Then we come to pressing out strings of bobbles.
This is Purgatorial work that is best left to a young apprentice or even a small child.
It's the monotonous repetition of process that gets to you. Luckily this frame only needed 8 lengths of compo to go around.
These get stuck down and left again to dry and harden.
The frame is now prepared for gilding. Here several layers of coloured clay are painted on and then polished to a mirror like shine with no tolerance of even the slightest imperfection.
Very exacting but necessary for a trouble-free gilding session.
Gilding day is to light the wood-stove, get it all nice and cosy, mellow music on the radio, hot mugs of tea and relax into the job.
And here is the frame fully gilded or to put it more prosaically, it is now covered in gold leaf.
I say it that way because now the frame is just a featureless profile with gold stuck on to it.
To make it mean anything the gold has to be worked and polished to resemble many years of wear and tear.
Then layer upon layer of transparent glazes are laid on and washed off so as to build up a finish with authentic depth and colour.
And that is where all the money is.
Whilst all that went before was from formula and merely prescriptive; now I have to work with the memories of gilded frames I have seen in large public galleries and National Trust properties.
All that takes a few more days and then the frame is ready to be shipped to the customer.
Money wise the frame is worth about £430, but I only needed £10 of wood and £20 of gold to do it.
Please say if you hate it, think it's irrelevant or is just trying to show-off.
Praise however is welcome anytime.
It's for a frame shop in London which carries some of my profiles and this one's called a thin replica Georgian Frame.
For the sake of having something to talk about I'll describe the process that goes into making it.
For this frame all I needed was a length of F10 and an equal length of F6 glued onto it.
Then it was a happy day feeding it through the spindle moulder.
I say happy because this is relaxing and creative work. You keep adjusting and changing cutters until you have the exact profile you're looking for.
With that done, the frame is cut and joined before setting off to the gesso chicken shed.
This is my splendid old spraying compressor which I bought off E-bay.
It cost me £70 and is built like a tank and oh so quiet in operation.
I use this to blow gesso through my trusty spray-gun which you can see is well kept and in meticulous condition.
Spraying gesso is definitely the way to go. You could spend hours building up layers of gesso with a brush, whilst ten minutes with a spray-gun will do the job in just two heavy coats.
After the frame has dried, always overnight, the gesso is sanded and lightly polished to an even finish.
Then we come to pressing out strings of bobbles.
This is Purgatorial work that is best left to a young apprentice or even a small child.
It's the monotonous repetition of process that gets to you. Luckily this frame only needed 8 lengths of compo to go around.
These get stuck down and left again to dry and harden.
The frame is now prepared for gilding. Here several layers of coloured clay are painted on and then polished to a mirror like shine with no tolerance of even the slightest imperfection.
Very exacting but necessary for a trouble-free gilding session.
Gilding day is to light the wood-stove, get it all nice and cosy, mellow music on the radio, hot mugs of tea and relax into the job.
And here is the frame fully gilded or to put it more prosaically, it is now covered in gold leaf.
I say it that way because now the frame is just a featureless profile with gold stuck on to it.
To make it mean anything the gold has to be worked and polished to resemble many years of wear and tear.
Then layer upon layer of transparent glazes are laid on and washed off so as to build up a finish with authentic depth and colour.
And that is where all the money is.
Whilst all that went before was from formula and merely prescriptive; now I have to work with the memories of gilded frames I have seen in large public galleries and National Trust properties.
All that takes a few more days and then the frame is ready to be shipped to the customer.
Money wise the frame is worth about £430, but I only needed £10 of wood and £20 of gold to do it.
Please say if you hate it, think it's irrelevant or is just trying to show-off.
Praise however is welcome anytime.