Saturday

Water Gilding


A load of frames that are ready to be water gilded. Sixteen are for a gallery and two others for individual privat orders. Four frames will be gilded in 23.5ct gold, one in 22ct moon gold, and thirteen in 12ct white gold. 

Friday

Window Frames


Here is another example of frames used on the high street in window displays... A previous post is here: Frames in Retail Displays

Roseberys London Auction





Roseberys London auction house continues to establish their place as the destination to buy antique frames at auction, with 200 lots in their 1st December 2015 sale. Frame lots start at number 400:

Louis XVI Revival Frame


Edwardian Ebonised and Gilt Frame


White Cassetta Frame


A corner sample of a tray type cassetta frame, finished in white, a style that is sometimes referred to as a St. Ives frame. As a guide to prices, a frame like this sample to fit a 12" x 12" painting costs around £25 in materials charged, and the same in labour and overheads, with VAT the total cost is £60

Sketch Book





My lovely wife bought me this little sketch book at the weekend, it has lots of frames which can be filled with doodles and sketches, as well as plinths, cabinets and other museum display areas that can be filled with drawings. What a great little book!

Saturday

Skulls Frame



Antique Frames



Moon Gold and Gesso


American Frames



A couple of examples of American arts and crafts early 20th Century carved frames.

Parcel Gilded Frame




On this frame only the inner section is coated in gesso, bole, and then water gilded in 22ct moon gold on grey bole. The rest of the frame will be painted directly on the wood grain.

Friday

Halloween Fun





Thursday

Nice Little Compo Frame


Another Boxwood Mould


Florentine Frame





A lovely example of a carved Italian Florentine style frame from the 19th Century, new stock that arrived today. The condition is rather good considering these frames are very prone to damage and losses to the carved wood. The rebate is about 20" x 16"

Before and After









Here are some before and after photos of this fantastic swept frame, a really exceptional example of a late 19th Century Louis XV Rococo revival frame, probably French made. The frame was from my stock, although the restoration work was done by another restorer/framer as it needed doing quickly and I could not fit it in my current heavy workload. In the photos the restored frame looks very bright, this is more to do with the light when I took the photos, in reality the frame looks like it is in excellent original condition with natural wear and antique patina, although the gilding has cleaned up very well too.

Sunday

Framemaker T-Shirt Shop

You can now buy t-shirts and many other different items of clothing with this antique engraving of a carved Italian leaf frame. This is the only design at the moment, but more will be added in the near future. I had some frame designs printed on t-shirts some time ago for myself, other framers saw them and a few said they would buy them if they were available, so that is what I have done.





Friday

Two More Antique Frames



Detail of the bottom section of a composition oval frame, and a nice Louis XVI style moulding frame. Both with original gilding, great looking burnish on the hollow of the French frame.

Antique Watercolour Frame


A simple but really nice little antique watercolour frame with original gilding and composition ornament. I love the colour of bole on antique frames, this dusty pink is a classic.

Boxwood Moulds


A couple of carved boxwood moulds for composition ornament that I picked up recently. These come up surprisingly often on ebay and in small and large auction houses.

Frightfest Frame


The finished Halloween prize frame, the print is by Graham Humphreys and was originally painted for the poster artwork for Film4 Frightfest 2015. This frame was very fun to make and is not meant to be taken too seriously!!

There are various types of ornament and decoration used; the skulls are cast in hard casting plaster, the monster head at the top is 3D printed, the cartouches, wings, the bottom centre ouroboros and cats eye ornament on the other three centres are all moulded in epoxy sculpture putty, the straight outer cats eye ornament is machine carved, the latin text is pastiglia, the two pentagrams are made from spaghetti and then gesso on top, lastly the symbols are oil gilt in white gold. The finish is just paint, wax, and pigments.

A Frame for Halloween