I have been asked to frame a number of martial art belts that progress from beginner at the top to the penultimate belt at the bottom and the individual wearing the coveted black belt in a photo that will sit in the centre.
Due the size and weight of the belts I am concerned on how to mount the belts without the inevitable force of gravity producing a sag effect. Unusually, the customer is not concerned if the product is not reversible. Ideally I would like to stay with tradition and mount the belts so that it is reversible.
Does anyone have any experience of mounting belts and if so how do you recommend mounting? And how would I mount a photo in the centre 'over the top' of the belts?
Martial Art Belts
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pmdavies33
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Roboframer
Re: Martial Art Belts
How's about two rows of vertical slits, about 18" apart - they could be bevelled, reverse bevelled or 90 degree cut - just wide enough for the belts to pass through snugly. They would not have to be absolutely CMC-perfect, most of one side will be concealed by the belt.
Pass the ends of the belts through the slits from the back and tie them at the front, not in a bulky knot, just a left-over-right cross, to leave the ends (which probably have nice labels) dangling in an inverted 'V'. This would leave half (or so) of the belt out of sight behind the mounting board. I'd have a slight sag, as it would have when worn, people are not square/flat.
Fasten the front of the belt with two melinex straps as wide as possible whilst staying concealed by the dangling bits that pass over it and stitch or tag the ends of the dangling bits (which could, to save space, actually dangle over the belt below). Add stitches with cotton to match each belt wherever you like, or, more strategically, tags; in fact this could be done on the concealed part of the belts, making sure that the front of the belt conceals the stitches/tags.
That's a lot of weight for 4-ply board but it doesn't matter, you need to make the belts flush at the back, do this with pieces of 3mm foam board cut to the shape of the exposed board, doesn't have to be neat. Fix them in place with PVA and a few bits of DS tape just to hold things and make the whole thing handle-able while the glue dries. Then bond another complete sheet of foam board over all of that, attached only to the flush-making pieces of foam board.
So far, assuming no extra folding is required at the back, you have no more than about a centimetre of thickness to worry about.
Now the photo - it can be dry mounted, maybe to a black core board and that board could be bonded to pieces of foam board fixed between the belts as per the flush-making pieces at the back. Maybe it would be better to one side to keep the ends of the belts exposed, if not it would just need thicker flush-making pieces of board.
Then hopefully a suitable frame with a deep enough rebate for all of that, plus a rebate spacer, otherwise a framed box.
Simples.
Pass the ends of the belts through the slits from the back and tie them at the front, not in a bulky knot, just a left-over-right cross, to leave the ends (which probably have nice labels) dangling in an inverted 'V'. This would leave half (or so) of the belt out of sight behind the mounting board. I'd have a slight sag, as it would have when worn, people are not square/flat.
Fasten the front of the belt with two melinex straps as wide as possible whilst staying concealed by the dangling bits that pass over it and stitch or tag the ends of the dangling bits (which could, to save space, actually dangle over the belt below). Add stitches with cotton to match each belt wherever you like, or, more strategically, tags; in fact this could be done on the concealed part of the belts, making sure that the front of the belt conceals the stitches/tags.
That's a lot of weight for 4-ply board but it doesn't matter, you need to make the belts flush at the back, do this with pieces of 3mm foam board cut to the shape of the exposed board, doesn't have to be neat. Fix them in place with PVA and a few bits of DS tape just to hold things and make the whole thing handle-able while the glue dries. Then bond another complete sheet of foam board over all of that, attached only to the flush-making pieces of foam board.
So far, assuming no extra folding is required at the back, you have no more than about a centimetre of thickness to worry about.
Now the photo - it can be dry mounted, maybe to a black core board and that board could be bonded to pieces of foam board fixed between the belts as per the flush-making pieces at the back. Maybe it would be better to one side to keep the ends of the belts exposed, if not it would just need thicker flush-making pieces of board.
Then hopefully a suitable frame with a deep enough rebate for all of that, plus a rebate spacer, otherwise a framed box.
Simples.
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IFGL
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Re: Martial Art Belts
I like the sound of that To robo, great suggestion, might even do my own belts like that.
If you make a copy of the photo then do exactly as robo said with it but bevel the edges on your mount cutter you will have a nice bevelled black edge to go with the black belt.
If you make a copy of the photo then do exactly as robo said with it but bevel the edges on your mount cutter you will have a nice bevelled black edge to go with the black belt.
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pmdavies33
- Posts: 37
- Joined: Mon 27 Dec, 2010 1:51 pm
- Location: Benson, Oxfordshire
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- Interests: Framing
Re: Martial Art Belts
Many thanks Roboframer. What you propose sounds a lot more natural than the idea originally mooted by the customer. I will proffer your advice and see what his thoughts are.