I don't even know what to call this!

[ukframeboy]

I have just had a customer in asking if I can frame a print with a mirror around the edge where we would usually put a mount. I have seen "ready made" versions these before, they are a piece of glass with a silvered outer edge leaving an aperture for the image in the centre, but only where customers have brought them in for some sort of frame repair or re-frame job.

1. Can anyone tell me what they are called? - Edge silvered glazing or whatever?
2. Can anybody tell me where I could buy them from?
3. is it acceptable to mount the art onto the front of a mirror, then put a spacer between the mirror and a sheet of glass? - I think this might look a little bit messy, but would welcome your comments.

Also, I am looking for some nice fittings for a large modern opening memorabilia frame (hinges, clasps & hanging hardware) in a silver, aluminium and/or black finish.

1. Any ideas where I could source these from?
2. If not, any advice on best method and material to paint standard ones?

Many thanks in advance.

[prospero]

Never seen one quite like that.

One of my great ideas that I never got round to actually making was to fix sections on mirror to a frame. You would need a widish flat moulding and put a very thin moulding either side. Or maybe there is an all-in-one-piece moulding that would work. I've seen mirrors with pieces of mirror set in the frame. Good way of using mirror offcuts if nothing else. You can get stick-on lead strips to cover the joins.

How does that grab you?

[ukframeboy]

Sounds very interesting, I particularly like the idea of using up the mirror off cuts - I've got loads and people just don't seem to want small mirrors from me.

However this does not really offer a solution to this particular request; the customer has chosen the frame she would like. She definitely wants a mirror where the mount would be. Perhaps I should explain that the customer is from the Irish Traveling Community, and has very specific ideas about what she wants and chintzy it will be

[prospero]

Well if it's a 'disposable' print, the simplest way is to stick it onto mountboard and then trim it on the mountcutter so it has a nice bevel edge. Then stick it on the front of a mirror and put a frame round it using slightly thicker broad as a blind spacer.

If the image has to be removable, then you have got bigger problems. Don't fancy getting a quote for a mirror with a square hole in the middle.

[Graysalchemy]

What you are describing is the brain child as what Robo would call an Inferior Designer it is wall candy something which will end up in the bin the next time the room is decorated.

Now this is great for us framers as if you do a good job they will be back in 12 months time for its replacement. Don't get hung up whether or not the conservation police approve or not it is wall candy. However the print will need dry mounting and that in turn will need gluing to the mirror with probably silicon (gasp shock). I would advise the customer that it won't be reversible but I doubt they will be bothered.

With regards to clasps etc Frank B Scraggs in birmingham will be the only place to get them and I am afraid they only come in brass or brass. Thankfully B&Q sell spray paint.

If anyone does have a second source of jewel box clasps I would be interested as I use a couple of thousand of the blighters each year.

[ukframeboy]

Thanks for the input both. What sort of paint would you recommend? Auto aerosol paint? Should i varnish it after painting? This is a 1k+ frame and I don't want it coming back!

Can we call it caravan candy in this instance?

[Gesso&Bole]

I had something like this to do once. I made up 4 long thin frames, with a mirror in each, and 4 tiny square frames for the corners, and then one bigger frame for the print in the middle, and one bigger frame to go round the whole lot.

it was all held together by screwing through a plywood back into each of the little frames.

Took ages, but it was stunning when finished. Incidentally, I got the local glazier to bevel all of the bits of mirror which looked good, but was quite expensive.

This was for a travelling gypsy family, and was done in the late 1980s

[Roboframer]

In my kitchen I have an extractor fan in the centre of a double glazed window, so if a circle can be cut in two pieces of 6mm (or whatever it is, bloody thick anyway) glass then I suppose a square could be cut in a 2 or 3mm mirror..... not that I could do it .... and maybe the circle wasn't cut at all anyway - maybe the glass in liquid form, was set around that shape - I've no idea, but if you give Glass and Mirror a call they could tell you if it is do-able and if it is then they could probably do it with a bevel.

[Roboframer]

Don't get hung up whether or not the conservation police approve or not it is wall candy. However the print will need dry mounting and that in turn will need gluing to the mirror with probably silicon (gasp shock).

I'm always going to respond!

Firstly we don't know the value/replaceability of the print, secondly in the OP

they are a piece of glass with a silvered outer edge leaving an aperture for the image in the centre

it's an aperture that is desired, not a float. Thirdly, if the aperture is out of the question, then, depending on the artwork, there are different ways of floating it bar dry mounting. Fourthly, once floated, with whatever method, it doesn't really matter what adhesive you use to stick a piece of mount board to a piece of glass, but there are far better alternatives to silicone, such as no nails.

[Not your average framer]

Some of these sign making companies stock a mirror film for attaching to the glass in windows. I've got a feeling that this may be a possible answer to this one.

BTW, if the picture is being mounted behind the glass is of little value, perhaps it can be mounted onto the reverse of the glass with an optical grade self adhesive mounting film.

[prospero]

You could try removing the silvering from the middle of a mirror. Mount and glass all in one lump.

No idea how though.

[prospero]

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[Graysalchemy]

I'm always going to respond!

I did cover my self with a rather lame get of jail free

I would advise the customer that it won't be reversible but I doubt they will be bothered.

But surely if some one was bothered about its conservation you wouldn't suggest it being in any contact with the glass so it would have to be 'attached' to a piece of board and the board attached to the glass which would involve the use of some form of nastie glue as wheat starch paste isn't going to stick to mirror glass.

I used to have an inferior designer who would come each week with ideas like this.

With regards to spray paint I would suggest that the spray paint on its own would be OK or you could use a lacquer varnish over the top. I once enquired if I could have them in silver but I would have had to buy 10000 of them. Admittedly I have probably used that many over the years.

[Louise Hay]

Lyn Hall made a fabulous mirrored frame for her winning entry in our framing award this year. October's Art Business Today magazine has a 'how she did it' article - the magazine will be out very soon. If you don't get ABT (and of course you should ) then email me and I'll send you a pdf once we've gone to press.

Sorry for the photo (almost impossible to photograph mirrors) but the 'white' bit is mirror as well as the spacers