A little bit different

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Of framing styles or techniques that rocked your boat, and also of those that didn't
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Framerpicture
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Re: A little bit different

Post by Framerpicture »

Nicholson.jpg
Nicholson.jpg (52.88 KiB) Viewed 21053 times

Nicholson 2.jpg
Nicholson 2.jpg (19.34 KiB) Viewed 21053 times


The OP is not unlike what I know as a Nicholson frame named after the Cornish artist Ben Nicholson,who often had his work framed like this. This one isn't glazed but we have made them that are
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Re: A little bit different

Post by StevenG »

Some quite funny comments in this thread actually :D

Anyway, thanks again for the feedback - good/bad it's all appreciated. I will agree that it wouldn't suit certain homes but as everyone has said ... as long as the customer is happy.

We've seen the factory vs hand finished discussion here before, each have their merits & place in the world & y'know what? - I like both actually.
Geoff

Re: A little bit different

Post by Geoff »

Horses for courses indeed and nothing whatsoever wrong with that. Nothing wrong with commercial mouldings if that's where your market is either. Good luck to all!! There are many very good framers around and from a personal point of view... I just wish more would get into hand finished work. So much more personal satisfaction. The initial post that has prompted these replies at least was a hand finished product so just because it was not my "cup of tea" doesn't mean it wasn't good in that respect...Anyway...too many thoughts that could turn into words at any moment so better stop.
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Re: A little bit different

Post by vintage frames »

LOOK EVERYONE! we've got to page 3!
A lively discussion - what we all enjoy.
Now, next topic......
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Graysalchemy

Re: A little bit different

Post by Graysalchemy »

Like your veneer frame you ahve made looks almost like a commercialy finished frame :lol: :lol:
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Re: A little bit different

Post by vintage frames »

'Took me ages to get it to look like that too.
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Re: A little bit different

Post by Not your average framer »

With some of the comments and counter comments we have had today, I hope that no one has gone away with the idea that handfinishing is only for the elite few. Nothing could be further from the truth!

There are many on this forum who are only too happy to answer questions and are pleased to see others developing their own abilities and succeeding. Please don't feel that you can't ask what you may think is a trivial question. Ask and someone will help you and no doubt others reading the same thread will learn something of value as well.

It probably does not need saying, but those who rely on using mainly factory finished mouldings are no less skilled that the rest of us. There is just as much evidence of creativity on this forum from those using factory finished mouldings as from those doing the handfinishing.
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Graysalchemy

Re: A little bit different

Post by Graysalchemy »

One thing which I would like to point out is that picture framing is not just about sticking four bits of wood together as some of us would like to think, but it is about design important part of what we do and most definately a skill.

However if you are merely copying patterns of yester year.....................................
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Re: A little bit different

Post by IFGL »

my thoughts exactly Alistair, on another thread someone is mentioning taking castings from old frames, how about some originality, use your skill to create something stylish and new.
Roboframer

Re: A little bit different

Post by Roboframer »

For most of what I get in, the actual frame is usually the least important component and almost always the last thing to decide on.

I would really like to have the skill to gild frames/mouldings; to veneer as well, but even if I had them .... and the dedicated space I'd need to do it all properly, I wouldn't have the time these days. I'm not too fussed about ornate/period/vintage stuff, or the artwork that would look good in those types of frames, or the rooms/buildings that those frames would look good in, it's just not my market, or most here I'd say. But the skills can still be used on more modern/contemporary things and in more modern/contemporary ways.

What I have evolved from calligraphy, I can do raised and gilded illumination, even write in pure gold leaf (well, you "write" in an adhesive and apply the gold later)! I brought some of those skills to framing - pure gold lines on mounts, on their own or to finish/be included in washlines, gilded panels, gilded bevels deep or not etc ... and all that does not have to be for traditional/old/antique stuff either.

I keep quiet about the calligraphy now, in fact I'd need a good week or two to get back in to it if I were to take on anything above a title on/in a mount! But in my dream world I'd be doing stuff like family trees with heraldry, in my own gilded frames with mounts with all the above on. I'd be doing it from my garage overlooking my fishpond and I'd only need one commission a month to be able to still shop at Waitrose!

Hand finishing of frames for me is limited to quick stuff, neutral wax, liming wax, staining wax and a few wood stains that are neutral waxed or limed over, all oak or ash and to be honest I could buy pretty much all the exact same profiles factory finished in pretty much all the same ways and they'd look no different, so why don't I?

Stock and profit that's why, not passion or anything else.
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Re: A little bit different

Post by Not your average framer »

Roboframer wrote:Hand finishing of frames for me is limited to quick stuff, neutral wax, liming wax, staining wax and a few wood stains that are neutral waxed or limed over
That's still handfinishing and just as valid as any other handfinishing. I bet it looks good too!
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Re: A little bit different

Post by Not your average framer »

IFGL wrote:on another thread someone is mentioning taking castings from old frames
Oh, dear! Are we all in trouble now! :Slap: :giggle:

Many of these decorative running patterns are just not obtainable without doing things like this, there is still creativity in how you use the reproduced details and how you handfinish the whole frame afterwards.

There are still customers, who come in and ask to have frames created to match an existing frame, so these castings may be the only way we can achieve the required result.
Mark Lacey

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Re: A little bit different

Post by IFGL »

I agree Mark and the comment was not directed at you, to copy perfectly is a copy however skillfully executed, unfortunately it it is lacking in originality, and has no real artistic value, might as well make 100's of factory finished frames, it's just another side to the argument.
Graysalchemy

Re: A little bit different

Post by Graysalchemy »

:clap: :clap: :clap: well said my setiments exactly.

We all have differing skill sets and skills they are, so for someone to ask where is the skill in just putting togetehr 4 bits of wood really annoys me. Even making thousands of frames a day on a totally automated line involves skill and planning.

Take the blinkers off Geoff and Dermot, just because you have no interest in this type of framing doesn't mean it takes less skill or talent than what you do.
Geoff

Re: A little bit different

Post by Geoff »

Take the blinkers off Geof.....Well..my blinkers have never been on...thats my answer to that silly ameteur comment. I have posted a wide variety of handmade frames of various styles both contemporary and more traditional types including the odd mirror frame too. This is NO comparison whatsoever when you try to compare ready made factory finished mouldings to something executed by hand. Those comments were made to me" BY" a mass producer of finished mouldings incidentally I was visiting earlier this year. If you honestly think that... then you have a very naive perspective of framing generally. Another comment mentions that..... the actual frame is usually the least important component and almost always the last thing to decide on. Fortunately... I don't suffer from a clientèle that has that attitude either.. in fact..the frame is ALWAYS of prime importance to all of the people I deal with. Sure you can attribute the word "skill to almost anything but within framing there is an enormous difference in the definition of the word. How about we change the subject now?
Roboframer

Re: A little bit different

Post by Roboframer »

Don't think so - it's not nice to say my customers are people that need to be suffered. You obviously have a totally different market to most here, that is if that market is actually yours as in you are running your own business. (your website's down).
Graysalchemy

Re: A little bit different

Post by Graysalchemy »

I think to me Geoff the prime importance is the artwork not the frame. The frame is there to enhance the artwork, lead the eye and obviously to give it protection not to be more important than.

Be sorry silly me I am only an amateur who sticks four bits of wood together and throws in a bit of glass.
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Re: A little bit different

Post by vintage frames »

I thought this forum was about - picture framing.
Am I looking in the wrong place?
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Re: A little bit different

Post by markw »

Probably
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Re: A little bit different

Post by Tudor Rose »

No vintage frames, you're not wrong. This forum is about picture framing - but maybe some people on here need to remember exactly what it says under the banner title of The Framers Forum ^^^^^^. It says, for Picture Framers and Picture Framing Issues.

So that's pretty clear then that it is for ALL picture framers of WHATEVER business model they work to. There have been a few threads on here in the past, as well as this one, that will do nothing to encourage new members to get involved. Yes, there is craftsmanship in what you and Geoff do, but there is also craftsmanship in what pretty much everyone else on here does too. Maybe before posting people should consider HOW their comments may be taken by others. Why is it that we can't just acknowledge that there are different approaches to every framing job and there are different kinds of picture framers and most importantly of all, different kinds of customers.

Some on here will want to only do very high end, hand crafted frames, others will want to do handfinishing with a bit of extra woodwork skills thrown in adding detail etc, others want to use manufactured bare woods and do their own finishes, others want to use factory finishes - the list is pretty endless and there will be cross over within those bands too. So why can't we just accept that, acknowledge that actually there is skill in all the different aspects, even though those skill sets might be different from others and that not everyone on here can or WANTS to do all the different types that there are. In the words from Life of Brian "we are all different" and thank goodness for that!

This topic, this "discussion", this mud slinging could do on ad infinitum but really, what's the point??
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