The Framers Forum

Following on from 'frame design' ideas talked about on the forum for a while, here are some things we have done recently:

First one shows how a narrow flimsy frame can be made into a very secure and rigid frame...

Contemporary original print, glass size is 783mm x 1056mm. Print is float mounted on 5mm foamboard, fixed with water activated adhesive paper hinges. The mountboard the foamboard/print is floated on has an aperture cut back to front, 1” in from the edge of the foamboard. The foamboard/print is lightly fixed to the mountboard with a small strip of DS tape. The whole thing is then turned over and the foamboard is fixed to the mountboard with more paper hinges. The cut out from the aperture is then fitted back in and fixed in place with PH7 70 self adhesive tape.

3/4” wide by 1 1/2” deep oak box frame is joined with 30mm long dovetail keys, and fixed with polyurethane glue. 2mm float glass, 13mm spacer, and Art Bak backing.

The dovetail key corners are very strong and more than capable of taking the weight and providing a rigid frame, but a 10mm x 35mm obeche backing frame is also fitted, with the cross bars secured with more dovetail keys. This frame is then screwed to the oak frame with metal plates. This eliminates any chance of the top or sides of the frame flexing, which can often happen when frames are carried carelessly, and from the pull of the hanging fittings, and makes the whole frame very secure. Finally 4mm thick oak veneer plywood corner triangles are glued (not to much glue so they can be removed in future) and screwed to both the oak and obeche frames. All the screws in the oak frame are drilled first to avoid splitting or stressing the wood.

Hanging is with 4 heavy duty hangers from Lion (3 hole which have been cut down to make them 2 hole) screwed into both the oak and obeche frames. The No. 4 brass wire is fixed to the bottom left hanger, goes up through the left side, across to the right side and then down to the bottom right bracket. A piece of No. 5 stainless steel plastic coated wire is also wrapped around the brass wire and fitted between the side hangers. The hanging weight is spread between the four hangers.

This one is a unusual shaped mirror frame:

That's a pretty bullet-proof frame and a great step-by-step description.

Was the mirror to go under some stairs? Must admit I've never mitred anything but 45 degrees.

The mirror was for a bathroom in a roof space, the customer gave me a hardboard template to show the external dimensions. It was pretty straight forward with a mitre chop saw, once I worked out the angles (which took a while ).
The oak frame is a bit over engineered but I would rather do it that way then have any chance of it falling apart

This is a pastel, it doesn't look as cold in real life. A gesso frame with paint finish, which I am not sure whether I actually like or not.

How's it mounted and is it glazed?

Here's 13 Elephants - suggested a couple of clever ways of mounting them but customer didn't want to pay - so they've all got a glob of goop on their feet! Customer's choice of mount colour too - which is artcare 'Lamplight', a rice paper
Moulding is A.N. Other flat black profile mitred on its side to make a box and then capped with a Simons moulding I can't remember the code for - something like 0052-0002

That's what we want Robo, more photos of different and unusual jobs! what adhesive did you use on those fellas feet?

The pastel is on board and is fitted in a bevel gesso slip (from Compo Mouldings, but Wessex/Frinton do it too), it has a wide rebate – 3/8” which is useful because it can be lined with 1/4” strips of mountboard, which gives a little gap that any loose pastel bits can drop into and not be visible. Glazed with Tru Vue AR, between the slip and frame which gives a good space between the pastel and glass. The moulding is a custom profile from Pief 2.

I don't do many sports shirts or memorabilia framing jobs, but have just done some Leeds Utd shorts. Fixed to colourmount 340 bluebell, with microstitch tags. The yellow inner mount is painted, frame is A42 obeche from R&H, painted and limed which colour match's the signatures pretty well. The spacer is also from R&H. Glazed with 2mm float, AR glass was out of budget which is a shame as the shorts are so dark.

framemaker wrote:what adhesive did you use on those fellas feet?

Well, I tried silly-cone first but it didn't work at all - they all keeled over when you laid the thing on its back - and that was after being allowed to go off overnight - just not enough contact area I guess. Still, being fresh, the goo peeeled away easily to make room for a different goo.

Tried a superglue gel that we sell (I'm a poet!) Stuck my fingers instantly but didn't want to know about the hefferlumps!

I was struggling after that - knew I had some 'no nails' at home - but tried wood glue - result!

Like the job on the pants - hope you didn't get short-changed.

Two I did in the last few days

Dermot,

They are growing up!