The Framers Forum

Justintime gave me this frame to shut me up.


It is about 3ft high by 4 ft long and weighs a ton - well, as much as a bag of coal.

This was once a quite valuable frame with lots of work that went into it. It suggests that it was made for quite an important picture.
However -
Someone in its past history decided it would look better if it was given a good coat of gold paint. (a bit like the thankfully fading fashion to paint all old furniture with Annie Sloan Chalk paint).
So, it has come to me for repairs to a lot of the broken ornaments and infill of missing gesso areas.
This is the sort of thing that many framers get coming in the door for 'just' a bit of this and that.
I'll follow this post with more photos as I get on with the job.

Looking forward to seeing repair process. Don't let your tea g cold though

Nick

"Justintime gave me this frame to shut me up..."
Is it working?

I knew a chap who did restoration once. I went to his house one day and he had a big painting of Queen Victoria that was
10' x 6' in an enormous frame with all sorts of ornaments on. It must have been a 12" wide moulding. He had it propped
against a wall in his front passageway which was only about 4' wide. It wouldn't go any further into the house. He worked
on it for months and restored the painting (in the frame) and the frame itself.

And so, it's back to the big'un.

The first job was to clean up the frame. The whole thing was covered in loose dust and even some powdery dried-out mold.
For an antique frame, even one painted in gold paint, the preferred method of cleaning is dry-brushing.
This removes all the loose debris and gently polishes and brightens up the gilding.
It appears the gold paint was applied many years ago and has since achieved its own patina, so dry brushing will not disturb the finish and instead preserve the rather pleasing antique glow from the frame.

I used these two brushes.
The flat one is a cheap natural bristle brush with the bristles cut down to achieve a mini scrubbing type brush. This is great for removing loose debris in and around all the prominent ornaments.
The larger stencil type brush has longer bristles and was used to polish up the gilding.


The next job is to replace all the broken and missing compo elements.
To do that required taking castings from some of the undamaged items.
And for that I used this marvellous stuff -

Its dead easy to use -
Weigh out an equal dollop of part A and part B

Squish them together for about 2 or 3 minutes, then press the mass against the ornament to be copied.
Use vinyl gloves for this and if you're ever near a 'Home Bargains Store', they do a box of 100 for £3.99!

Leave for about 1/2 hour then peel off the mould.

You can now use plaster or DAS moulding clay but for this frame I use gilders composition because it is much more durable and was needed for some of the larger castings around the big cartouches (corner elements).

If anyone wants to know how to make or use compo they can PM me and I'll help with what I know.
When the castings have all dried, I will be fixing them to the frame and filling in any gaps in and around the repairs.
More to follow . .

I've finished that frame, at last.
So, more tales from the messy end of picture framing.

The castings that were made for all the missing elements have now dried and all been trimmed to fit into the exposed sections of the frame.
Each casting is quite hard so is first warmed to soften it up then fixed to the frame with some applied heat and double strength RSG.
It takes about 2 or 3 minutes for the glue to set.
That 2 or 3 minutes can seem like 1/2 hour when you're holding it down with your fingers!
The final repairs were made using layers of gesso on the rails and then going around with some DAS and fudging it into all the cracks and crevices.


The next thing was to 'gild' the repairs.
I could just have used a gilt cream or a tube of 'Rub'n Buff' but these are mica and aluminium based and would be a bit too sparkly for this frame.
The existing finish is actually bronze powder and I used this again by simply painting all the repairs wet with RSG and painting over with dry bronze powder.
If you ever do this, wear a dust mask.
I did this with the sun shining in and it is quite alarming how much metal powder can be seen floating freely in the air.
When the RSG had dried, I used a Henry to hoover up the excess loose bronze.

Because I used a water-soluble method to 'gilding' the repairs, I was able to mix and apply a watercolour glaze over all the bronzing so as to blend it in against the existing patina.
With everything now dried, I brightened up the frame by brushing Renaissance wax over all the surface.

The customer who owned this frame had an antique canvas which although out of proportion, he wanted it fitted into this frame.
To make it fit Justintime and I had to make a wide rebated slip-frame to house the canvas before fitting it into the frame.
This was sprayed with gesso and toned to an off-white antique colour.


Justintime then handed the completed job to the customer who took it away quite delighted.
God knows how he's going to get it onto the wall.

Just to add... I think the "bag of coal" was about right, I estimated somewhere between 20-25kgs and of course he didn't arrive in his estate car, but chose the Fiat 500 for the collection visit. It was a tight fit. As far as hanging goes, it already had the largest and strongest eyelets that I have come across, so it was supplied with a few metres of Lions No.3 nylon cord, which has a safe working load of 46kgs and a failure load of 184kgs. I tied a few metres of cord around one eyelet, with the words "over to you..."

Being so confident in the frame hanging hardware and the strength of the cord, why not just make it ready to hang?

What advice did you give to the customer if any, regarding wall hardware and tying the provided cord?

The customer is a retired fine art dealer and a renowned collector with many more years experience than me of hanging high value fine art. I had previously explained the physics behind the importance of two hanging points (my due diligence) and so on this occasion I felt it appropriate that my responsibility end at the point of collection of the work. My insurance would not cover him (or me) hanging it and if he claimed that my cord setup had caused a failure, I would struggle to compensate him and stay in business. On this occasion he was perfectly happy and capable to take it from that point. I advised him that I would use industrial wall hardware suitable for his stone walls and rated for well over the frame weight.

'Good reply there, Justin.

I think the only relevant advice a framer could give in this instance would be - consult your builder.

I understand the risk factor, insurance etc. and if not covered would either not even touch it (the artwork that is) or maybe do any work to it without the customer in attendance.

However I think cord (or wire in my case) for anything of that weight IS a risk and wouldn't be suggesting, let alone providing it. Add high value and then it's just not an option, even if it wasn't that heavy.

I'd be looking at - whether suggesting or providing - wall fixings that correspond with frame fixings; both would have more than one screw, so J hooks and strap hangers, cleats, Z bars, HD wallbuddies ... etc.

Yeah, thanks John. All I was trying to say is that the customer, on this ocasión, had the hanging part of it totally covered.
I'm not going to teach an expert how to suck eggs.

Great Job!

As for hanging, I have sometimes fabricated a cleat system for use on frames where the canvas protrudes.
The trick is to make two cleats fixed to the side rails. You have to get each cleat spot-on level. You can use
as many screws as you like and I've found it's best to be generous with the wall fixings as some walls I've worked
on in old building are a bit iffy.

I once had to put fixings on a 7x5' frame which was HEAVY. Cleats were not an option as the artist insisted it pitch
forward slightly like a corded picture. ( ). Wire would have been problematic so I used the Japanese 'Gallery'
hanging system from Lion. Very nicely engineered and plenty of screw holes. I think the cost was £150+.

Dermot and Justin: Lovely bit of work and always good to hear about a bit of collaboration between framers

Fascinating to see the areas you've had to repair/rebuild and then the finished frame with seamless blending so that you'd never know it had been done. We've dabbled in this sort of thing, but your posts are inspiring me to get more active on this. As always, thank you for your generous sharing of knowledge and the incredibly useful photos to illustrate your points.

As for the hanging method - I think your advice to "not teach an expert how to suck eggs" is pragmatic in the circumstances you describe. Different circumstances, different advice and of course you're both professional enough to know which route to take.

Thankyou both Prospero and Tudor Rose.
I'm very glad you enjoyed reading about it.

Would it be too risky to use a solvent to remove the gold paint? Or is it more about respecting the color that's already there?

There wasn't money in the budget or the inclination to regild the frame. In this instance, the customer wanted to improve the frame.