The Framers Forum

I'm sure many of you are familiar with this nightmare I'm currently suffering - using gild cream to tidy up corners on a gold frame.

It's my first such frame, so be gentle, but the it seems that by tidying up any defects on a gold frame results in worse problems in terms of the ugly, and even dirty, smears left by the cream.

Could I get some honest feedback about the marks shown on these photos please? Note, they were taken with a spotlight, so they're more obvious. But should I be worried about these?

Is there any way to clean these up, maybe using spirit, or will that make matters even worse?

I need to hand this back to the client today so I need to act quickly!

Thanks, All

...and on this matter in general, are there any products that you use to wipe down frames in general, to remove hand marks and fingerprints? Gold frames and otherwise

For general wiping down I like these. Medical grade so no nasties in them just alcohol.

Those gilt creams are a PIA to clean up... I would try some alcohol on a non abrasive cloth, being gentle to start with, to prevent any damage to the moulding. Good luck! Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will come along soon and have a quick fix!

I knew I could rely on some helpful feedback from you, Justin!

I'm going to nip to the nearby shops now to pick up of said items now.

Thank you.

Don't beat yourself up over it. You're doing the best you can.
The problem is in trying to repair a machine made finish with hand working craft materials.
The gilt cream colour seems fine, so you have got that right,
'Trouble is the gold finish has a matt sheen and you are using a wax repair over it.

Gilt cream is just some gold coloured mica flakes mixed into a wax binder and softened with white spirit or other petroleum solvent.
The best solution would be to wipe over all the repairs and finger-marks with a cotton pad damp with white spirits.
This will remove all the excess gilt cream and leave the remaining cream sitting in the mitre joints.

Everything will look very wet but it all evaporates and should leave a dry flawless finish which you can buff gently with a dry cloth.
Another trick is to mix a little bit of dry Raw Umber pigment into the gilt cream. This takes the brightness off the finish, if needed.

Not much use for this particular job, but prevention is better than cure.

To prevent that chipping and mitre gap you either need better/different machinery or to remove the sample from your wall.

The moulding you illustrate is probably the worst when it comes to "touching up". I'd go no further than gently smoothing the back
edge an using a quick smear of gilt cream on that. The face, as you correctly observe, is a different matter.

A smooth, flat finish like that is a nightmare. Any slight flaw will stick out like a sore thumb.

This is why I never use factory mouldings nowadays. I join the frame and then apply a finish. Long-winded certainly, but less stressful.

I'd be interested to hear how that works, Prospero.
You seem to be the only one who declares here that you frame for the general public using primarily hand finished frames.
I obviously do the same but my customer base is mostly fine art dealers and galleries.

So, the questions, do people come for the style of framing or do you just persuade the walk-ins that this is how you do things?
And price wise, although it is obviously very profitable for you, is it competitive with those who frame with manufactured mouldings or does it find it's own work level, ie lower volume of work but higher overall profits?

........ I realise that h/f wouldn't suit all business models.

I do actually have a huge stash of finished mouldings that I have accumulated over the years and I occasionally
dip into it for the odd job. But I found that the overall quality has declined greatly over the years and there is also
the logistics of managing 100s of patterns. Even though you can't just grab raw profiles and chop them It actually works
out better for me. Minimal waste, less cash tied up in stock, etc...

Nowadays most of my work comes from pro artists who appreciate getting just what they want and the frames are
easily repairable should they get dinged.

Any new customer who wants something simple (and cheap) I usually direct to a mate of mine nearby. He his the only
active framer that I know of in my area today. And Lincolnshire is a big area. There are no doubt many more but I don't
know them. I've seen many spring up and disappear shortly afterwards. But I'm getting to the point where I don't want to
be working all hours expanding. By rights I should be sitting by the fire with my feet up.

Thanks for answering that Prospero.
It seems the customers you get come to you because they already know what they are going to get and are able to work with you to get the sort of framing they had in mind.
As for the walk-ins, you direct them elsewhere if they don't understand the offer.

I'm just curious as to what it's like if you step outside the usual business model and present yourself on your own terms as to the style of framoing provided.

You see that in the number of artisan bread shops who turn out wildly popular.
Picture framing is a basic service which works on a well established formula but I'm always curious as to why there aren't any who want to take things in a slightly different direction.

So I wanted to thank everyone for pitching into this one.

This time, I opted mainly for what you Dermot suggested: cleaning up the excess with spirit and cotton pads, and also doing this as a general clean up for handprints etc too. This worked a treat; I managed to get the gild cream back to the relevant corners, and the whole product looked a lot tidier.

I was working on it until just a couple of hours before the client came to collect them, and she seemed over the moon with the final product. Phew! Your help made a real difference.

I note the additional comments by Dermot and Prospero about the type of mouldings I'm using in comparison to hand finished frames and, yes, perhaps the latter us a direction I need to I need to start moving in.

For now, however, this has been another learning curve, but has thankfully worked out okay this time.

Thanks All! Have a great weekend.

I'd just like to add, don't assume that every pre finish is the same. I've found that some of the finished will start to lift with the alcohol wipes, let alone white spirit.