The Framers Forum

About two or three weeks ago I took two orders for two Arqadia mouldings which turned out to be obsolete. Both customers were in the shop at the same time and one was waiting while the other was being served.

The first customer is a regular and very discerning customer with a real eye for what is gonna look classy and we took ages finding something which would really look the business on her two frames. The second customer had been watching and when the first customer had left immediately chose the same moulding in the other colour option for her frame.

It was only when I tried to order these mouldings that I discovered that they both had been discontinued. In both cases there was no alternative moulding and both customers had set their hearts upon these mouldings. After speaking to the first customer she asked me if I could produce a hand finished copy, (she already has a number of my hand finished frames in her collection), so I set about deciding how this could be done. The second customer also wanted me to do the same.

This is a picture of one of the discontinued mouldings.
The most obvious way of recreating this was by stacking two Rose and Holis mouldings (A24 and A11).
To create the underlying bronze hints appearing through the top finish I needed to grain the base coat primer like this.
This meant devising a way of doing this. This is how I decided to do this.
And here is the part finished frame, unfortunately I varnished part of the finished surface without thinking that this would make it hard to get a good photograph, because the flash on the camera does strange things with the varnish. The gold sight edge has not yet been added. In reality the finished result looks really expensive and very designer, unfortunately the camera does not do it justice! I don't know why the finish looks so uneven on the photo, where as in reality the graining is much more uniform. I've deliberately exposed a bit more of the bronze than on the original, because it looks so good like that! The blue tones in the picture don't exist - This is due to problems with how the camera reproduces it! The same is true of the strange reflections on the image!
Here is an out of focus picture of the outside edge of the finished moulding. Sorry, but camera does not do manual focus and no matter how I tried it would only focus on the background not the frame, but I think it still gives an impression of what it looks like.
There is a certain amount of paint chemistry tricks involved in the way I have done this and parts of the top coat were removed by chemical distressing with a solvent which does not affect the paint below. The paints used are the Crown top coat and Liquid Metal Bronze underneath, (both are shown in the pictures). Again the blue tones in the picture don't exist - This is due to problems with how the camera reproduces it!

Looking good! Are those springs you have attached to the blocks of wood? I am guessing you have applied the paint and then passed the moulding under the springs to get the combed effect. Very ingenious.

How about posting a picture with the artwork in the frame.

Hi John,

Yes, those are springs. I've not done graining with springs before and if I had more time I would have done something different. I have another way of doing this which is even better, but it takes longer to do and as you can imagine I don't have the time to do this during the Christmas rush. BTW, the outside moulding is grained of both faces.

Gordon Bennet, Mark!

I bought 300 metres of that when they discontinued it - can't shift it for the life of me!!

Hi John,

Can't shift it, that's strange! It's a great looking moulding! I'm thinking of getting the same profile machined up out of pine, there's so many quick and easy finishes which would look great with it.

I use various different types of paints in combination, so that I can produce various different effects with the use of various solvents, acids, other chemical processes, plus the usual distressing effects.

Within reason, if you give me enough time to figure things out, I can copy almost any frame finish and devise custom finishes to a customers requirements.

Those who know me will confirm how much pleasure I get out of reproducing long obsolete frames and finishes. Getting the difficult ones right can be really exciting, when it all comes together.

Very cunning apparatus Mark.

I do a similar thing with a knackered old brush. But the moulding stays still and I walk alongside.

I did think of making a jig like that for wire-brushing pine, with a lecky drill+wire wheel strapped down. Doing it freehand is a bit tricky as it tends to dig in or shoot the moulding off the bench.

Jonny2morsos wrote:How about posting a picture with the artwork in the frame.

Here you go John,
Since the earlier photos, the broken edge gold detail has now been added to the sight edge.
How do you like the broken edge gold?

I like that effect with the gold. Much more of a hand crafted look without looking "home made"

Hello Mark, that looks great, particularly like the sight edge.

If you have a few moments and don't mind answering - with reference to your hand finish training thread, how long would a project like that take, actual time and elapsed time, including making the spring jig, and how profitable would that be versus informing your customers that it was no longer available and selecting an off the shelf alternative (if they hadn't known you already made hand finishes)?

That is of course being totally dispassionate as I know you also get a lot of pleasure from doing it too!

Hi Allframed,

I don't mind answering at all. I had already quoted a price based upon the published price of the moulding and had two customers who had ordered between the two of them three frames and mounts for their respective artworks.

I had taken deposits from both customers and one customer is a very good regular customer. Not only did I not want to let down an important customer, but I had taken deposits and I did not want to give back the deposits unless I had too. I informed both customers that their mouldings were now obsolete and that I was willing to do my best to reproduce the obsolete mouldings if the were happy for me to do so.

I thought that reproducing the mouldings would be easier than it actually turned out to be. My original plan was to rely upon the natural grain of the wood, but when I tried it that way it did not have the "wow" factor which I wanted, so I needed a "plan b".

I idea of using springs came to me while browsing inside my local hardware store. It's a veritable "Aladdin's cave" and when I noticed a multi-compartment plastic box containing various sizes of springs, it was just like someone switching a light on and I had a plan.

I did not feel able to charge any extra for reproducing the mouldings by hand, so the price remained as originally quoted. The frames took longer than intended, because I needed to get the finishing techniques worked out first, before making the frames for real. I still made a profit, but obviously not as much as I wanted too!

I liked the overall result, but would not want to mess around graining the base coat with the springs for any future frames. However while the frames were in the shop, other customers who saw them showed a lot of interest, so I'm thinking of getting a batch of the same profile produced in pine complete with the grained surface created in the machine tooling.

With pre-tooled graining in the moulding and no stacking of mouldings required, I could easily make each frame from start to finish in under two hours, (perhaps under one and a half hours). If I got a batch of moulding produced, I would offer it in several different finishes and probably would be able to charge about the same as the original, but obsolete Arqadia moulding.

It's a fairly straight forward and easy finish to create if the surface of the moulding already has a grained surface finish.

BTW, I shall be teaching the broken edge effect on the hand finishing training course. You'll be amazed when you find out how I get that effect!

Just a thought, if I get a pre-grained version of that profile machined by Norfolk mouldings, would any one want that included in the course?

Once the tooling has been created, anyone will be able to order the moulding direct from Norfolk mouldings. I would get it made in pine to keep down the cost. I think that at the right price and in a few quick and easy finishes, it should be a popular moulding.

Don't forget that many of my finished are distressed by wiping with disposable kitchen tissue, or splattering with solvents or chemicals, so some of my costly looking finishes can be relatively quick and easy to do!

Not your average framer wrote:Just a thought, if I get a pre-grained version of that profile machined by Norfolk mouldings, would any one want that included in the course?

Yes! me for one!

The finish looks very good and very professional. The fact that it could be reproduced in a variety of colours/finishes and that you only have to stock 1 moulding is very appealing to me.

This is what I would be looking to get more of at your course. (wrong thread I know - sorry!)

Thanks for that Mark. I'm sure there could be many variations on the theme so would be happy to see that in the course.
Cheers
Tim

O.K., I get look into getting that profile produced by Norfolk. We can use it on the course and everyone can have the details so they can order their own stock. It'll be done in pine, so the price should be good. I'm probably gonna do another profile too!