Massive Pencil Drawing

[RChanter]

Good morning!

I have been reading this forum for some months now and have found a lot of really useful information. This is my first cry for help....

I have a very large original pencil drawing to frame, it is about 2800mm by 900mm. I would really appreciate the best way to go about this. with the help of previous topics I have managed to source some acrylic, the company suggested that 4mm acrylic should be sufficient for this size, sound right? Other than that I am at a loss on how to frame it correctly!

I am thinking of using Arqadias 545-254.

The original is on paper and is slightly curly too!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
RChanter

[Kwik Picture Framing]

Have you thought about how you're going to flatten it down yet? Obviously you're going to want to do that before you actually frame it, as it works much better if it's flat.

[David McCormack]

Have you thought about how you're going to flatten it down yet? Obviously you're going to want to do that before you actually frame it, as it works much better if it's flat.

Well said Kwik. How would you flatten something like this?

[prospero]

Sooner you than me. Hope you have a big workshop.

Anyhow, if you are going to approach it in the 'conventional' way - edges covered by a mount.....

First thing is to build a rigid substrate to fix it to. I'd recommend a subframe made from square timber. Once you have done this that's half the battle. Cover this with foamcore. 5mm should be OK. If you tack it to the susbframe with a few tabs of doublestick, it will form a nice flat bed.
A window mount is the hardest part. You will be hard-pressed to find a sheet that size and even more hard-pressed to cut a window in it. I would suggest using a flat slip such as Rose&Hollis A231 or A245. You would have to paint it or maybe cover it with fabric. You'll need 10ft lengths.
One point. If you do go down the painted slip route, you will have to engineer a small spacer along the back edge of this 'mount' in order to lift the acrylic glazing off the painted surface, other wise you can get weird optical effects.

Once you have all this assembled, then you can think about the frame. You'll need something with a deep enough rebate to swallow the depth of the sandwich inc the subframe. Using this method, you don't need an excessively chunky frame as all the strength is in the subframe. The hangings can be fixed to this. However it's a good idea to have a generous lip width on the frame as acrylic can expand/contract. Extending the rebate with a slip isn't a bad idea.

How the drawing will settle down is anyone's guess, You can only suck it and see. It will need a few good hinges along the top - just enough.

Hope that helps.

[RChanter]

I have been racking my brains trying to devise a way of flattening and framing it, but can not really come up with any suitable ideas :/

It isn't curly like a print that has come out of a tube, its just a loose roll and I was kind of praying it would just flatten itself out in the frame but am aware this is worse than wishful thinking.

Any ideas?

[RChanter]

Thank you for taking the time for the explanation Prospero. Is there a way around having a mount? the customer does not wish for the item to get any larger than it already is... beginning to think I should have turned this one down..

[prospero]

You really need a big horizontal area where you can leave it under gentle weight for a few days. If you are brave you could try reverse rolling it to take the curl out. Hard to comment without seeing the beast.

You might find this useful.

re. the size thing, the R&H slip is 70mm wide. allowing for a bit of everlap it will add maybe 4" to the size. Given the overall scale, not a big increase. Having a bit of elbow room is desirable. A sheet of paper can grow more than you think. To close-frame it you would need to stick it down. Leaving aside conservation issues, you would need someone with facilities to mount on this scale. A sign company could possibly handle this. If you can find one. Given the logistics involved and the fact that it's original work, I would skip that idea.

[RChanter]

That is incredibly helpful! Have to read it a few more times though!

Thank you for the help!

[prospero]

ps. There is the matter of the wonga. I find that jobs over 4ft glass size need to take into account possible sp orders for oversize materials. The wastage factor tends to take a quantum leap. When you get to this scale you need to allow plenty of margin. A job like this is well into four figures.

[pramsay13]

Yikes, that's a big frame.
I can't offer much by way of advice, although painted slip rather than window mount sounds like a good idea to me. Another option would be just putting the acrylic right onto the paper. Probably depends what it is and what value it is.
As prospero says, make sure you charge correctly for this.

[Graysalchemy]

You also need to remember that you need space. Even in my large workshop I shy away from big jobs like that they are a ball ache, and I always find acrylic a pain to work with ie keeping it clean and not scratching it. I have on more than one occasion ended up scratching the acrylic and only just breaking even on the job once I finally get it to the client.

[Roboframer]

Scratch-restiant acrylic is available from Wessex and no doubt other framing suppliers - it's always worth a look around for non-framing suppliers of acrylic though - here's one that does a scratch (abrasion) resistant version - prices seem good. http://www.cutplasticsheeting.co.uk/cle ... ic-perspex

[Steve N]

you need to make sure your supplier has moulding in at that length, about six weeks ago I ordered some moulding and asked them to make sure each length was at LEAST 9 feet long, each length that came in was 8'10"

[Not your average framer]

Although there was a time that I would accept framing jobs as large as this, I now make a point of avoiding them completely.

I hope that the customer does not expect you to deliver it!