Clearance mouldings on special offer

[Not your average framer]

O.K. here's the promised pictures. As I said earlier the chosen moulding is a discounted clearance moulding, with the intention that anyone can do this one without any difficulty.

The moulding is one which is shown in both the Simons 2007 price list and the 2008 price list.

Apologies to other suppliers, I had to pick something, but to be fair I'll just quickly acknowledge that the are other sources of discounted clearance mouldings.

This particular moulding is 10 pence per foot and has gold inner and outer edges, but then a very boring 1970's dull looking blue/grey wired finish. So there you are, £10 will get you 100 feet of the stuff.

A small piece of the moulding in it's original finish is included at the front. The others have been painted with artists acrylic colours, (in the case Windsor and Newton colours). The chosen colours are, Titanium White, Crimson, Sap Green, Windsor Blue and Mars Black, which are all strongly pigmented colours. The surplus has been removed by rubbing with kitchen tissue and that's all there is to it!

The colours don't show as well as I would like in the picture, which is probably something to do with the flash. The real samples are much more fully covered with colour than the picture suggests. Anyone can get a good result with this one!

If you make some corner samples you can then finish however much you need in the colour required when you get an order.

[Grahame Case]

Very nice Mark,

if only our customers would go for hand finished stuff! we tried a good range of hand finished mouldings, 40 or so colours/styles and these were available various profiles. and they sat, and sat, and sat. apart from two particular styles "Whiteout" & "blackout"

white out involved 4 coats of water based white stain, and if the customer wanted it whiter we would use titanium white acrylic, and then liming wax, buff up and remove a bit of the grain with wire wool and voila, same applies for Black out, although we used a special effect wax if i recall correctly.


i'd love to be able to get back to hand finishing again, but i don't see the market being there in Edinburgh right now, perhaps it will come back, who knows. what is going right now though is water gilded gold and silver frames. people can't get enough of them!

[prospero]

Great work. Like the top one in particular.....

I just got a new camera, so I'll post up some of mine. I have to get a card reader first though, as the software that came with the camera disables the sound on my PC for some reason...

btw. Do you ever refinish gilded mouldings? I have a good tip for making acrylic paint stick to them without having to strip them down completely. I rough them up with coarse sandpaper and give them a coat of shellac. The shellac sticks to the moulding and water-based paint sticks well to the shellac.

[Not your average framer]

Hi Grahame,

The original point with this thread was NOT mainly to do with hand finishing, but getting some really good profit out of discounted clearance mouldings.

The finish used here is really quick to do! One coat of acrylic, then rub the surplus off. When it's dry, cut it, join it and the jobs done!

You don't sell it as hand-finished. It's just another moulding, but it only costs 10 pence per foot and sells for whatever you like! Nice potential for profit!

[Mary Case GCF]

but it only costs 10 pence per foot

plus the cost of the acrylic paint

[Not your average framer]

plus the cost of the acrylic paint

Hi Mary,

It goes a long way, because it's so strongly pigmented and it's not at all expensive in use on a moulding like this. I've been using the same tubes of paint for ages.

I also sell such mouldings as full price mouldings, with such strong colours they look "bang up to date"!

[Mary Case GCF]

Luckily we happen to sell acrylic paints in the shop, and as no one seems to want to buy any from me just now, I might well put some aside for use in finishing mouldings. Now all I have to do is find a bargain moulding

[Not your average framer]

Now all I have to do is find a bargain moulding

Hi Mary,

There are plenty to chose from, but you have to be very careful to get the right ones, (there's a lot of dead stock out there too!) I suggest a mix of just a few really versatile discounted clearance mouldings and some carefully selected plainwood mouldings which can be used in various ways and in different combinations.

Some people were suprised at my disapointment at moulding price increases, well price is very important when you want to make hand finishing a speciality. You need to keep a range in stock and know which ones will fit well together and how to finish them to look even more classy and stunning than anything else which is available.

It all takes time and practice. Ideally you make your practice pay, while you've getting it! I also noticed Grahame mentioned using four coats of white wood stain, well a good quality white or off-white paint will do it in one coat. You need to learn how to work at speed and it's more about methods than trying to be fast.

[Not your average framer]

As requested, here's a picture for Prospero.

Hi Prospero,

This one might well be the sort of profile you might find useful too! It's by Unique Mouldings and costs 29 pence per foot. Both chevrons are the same moulding - Very versatile!

Back chevron is plain black, good as a spacer for framing medals, etc.

Front chevron is distressed antique gold over clay red, can also be glued into other mouldings if required.

[prospero]

Excellent.

I'm about to frame up a big exhibition. Biggish oils and a few drawings. All individually designed and hand-finished. I hope to 'absorb' a few mouldings that have been hanging about awhile.
I'll post up a few in-progress pics. (camera software permitting).

As well as clearance stuff, I often buy finished moulding just to get the profile I need. It's got to be the 'cooking' variety. No point in paying for a classy finish when you are going to scrape it off. Ordered some brown wood stuff from Arqadia today for that very purpose. Very traditional profile, very useful. Discontinued. Don't know if you get gessoed stuff from Frinton Mouldings.... They have scrapped about half the range. I bought a load before Xmas (40% off, but that's no comfort). They still have loads left if ya want to stockpile some.

[Not your average framer]

Hi Prospero,

Yes, Frinton mouldings is one one our favorite suppliers. We used to have a lot of Neilsen samples on display, before their rep behaved very offensively towards us. My wife was particularly upset and we removed their mouldings from display.

The space which has been made availble, has largely been filled with the Frinton Mouldings range, plus some very nice Larson Juhl and some very nice Simons ones too! We haven't looked back, business wise it was a good move.

We also buy some of Frinton's bargain clearance bundles which we find are excellent value. I have also been planning on buying some of their Midas range of mouldings as part of our future stock range, but it will have to wait until some of our customers come and collect their orders.

We are currently very busy, with new orders coming in all the time, but customers seem to be avoiding collecting their work. I think money is a bit tight with some!

[prospero]

I have been searching around for someone reasonably local who has a stripping tank. Once upon a time when pine furniture was all the rage, there were dozens of little businesses who could strip stuff for you. Now they seem a bit thin on the ground. I must have 2-3000 ft of moulding tucked away that needs doing. Sometimes I leave old frames/moulding outside and wait for the compo to drop off. Takes a while though... Also, after my fence blew down last year I have lots of nicely wheathered wooden slats that have possibilities.

[Not your average framer]

I have been searching around for someone reasonably local who has a stripping tank. Once upon a time when pine furniture was all the rage, there were dozens of little businesses who could strip stuff for you. Now they seem a bit thin on the ground.

If you've got a decent sized compressor, you could consider getting a hand-held grit blaster. They can be quite cheap and you can knock up your own cabinet for it and re-use the grit that collects in the bottom. I would imagine that some kind of extractor fan would be a good idea too!

Speaking of fans, a furniture restorer in Surrey, had a home made paint and varnish spray cabinet with an extractor fan to blow all the fumes straight up a chinney. When he moved out, the new tenants decided to use the fireplace. As fast as the fire brigade put the fire out it would restart again.

[Not your average framer]

Hi Propero,

Nice idea Prospero! I checked to see where the nearest pine stripping facility is in my area and there a new one opening up next month about 20 miles away. He's gonna be looking for business, so the price might be attractive.

The more I think about your idea the more I like it. I've already got my eye on some tempting mouldings. It's a good way of getting some nicely priced plain wood mouldings, especially in hard to find profiles. Do you think that you'll be able to do the same at your end?

[prospero]

Now you mention it. I have a grit gun somewhere. And simewhere else under a big pile of offcuts is a nice bambi compressor. Mind you, I think last time I tried grit blasting I got more down the back of my neck than on the frame.

Sometimes Frinton will get me some half-finished mouldings, either plain or gessoed. But it all depends on ordering it at the time the manufacturer is making some more.

I had a couple of leads to a stripping service, but so far I have not been able to contact then.

[kev@frames]

I have been searching around for someone reasonably local who has a stripping tank. Once upon a time when pine furniture was all the rage, there were dozens of little businesses who could strip stuff for you. Now they seem a bit thin on the ground. I must have 2-3000 ft of moulding tucked away that needs doing. Sometimes I leave old frames/moulding outside and wait for the compo to drop off. Takes a while though... Also, after my fence blew down last year I have lots of nicely wheathered wooden slats that have possibilities.

the trouble with hot dip can have that is the caustic can remain in the wood and attract moisture for years afterwards. what about Paint stripper or sandblasting?

But if you do find a dip n strip, blag a can full of the crud from the bottom of the tank. You can make new pine look gorgously antiqued by brushing it on. Awesome effect.

[prospero]

I have used paint stripper on small jobs, but I would need buckets of the stuff and about three months holiday to strip all I want to do. Some of the moulding I need stripping seems very resistant to paint stripper. It is gessoed, but has some sort of sealing coat to which nothing will stick. (I got it cheap. ) It really needs to be done on a more industrial scale than I can manage.

*Don't they use more eco-friendly chemicals nowadays, rather than the old caustic?

[Not your average framer]

the trouble with hot dip can have that is the caustic can remain in the wood and attract moisture for years afterwards

That's sounds like bad news. Also the likely problem with sand blasting is that it is a manual process and will include a larger labour costs, than the stripping tank. It had sounded like a good idea, until now.

[Grahame Case]

That's sounds like bad news. Also the likely problem with sand blasting is that it is a manual process and will include a larger labour costs

not necessarily, it depends what scale of equipment they have for sandblasting, some of the big industrial kit can strip a section of wood in a flash

[prospero]

not necessarily, it depends what scale of equipment they have for sandblasting, some of the big industrial kit can strip a section of wood in a flash

Might be OK for paint off pine. Not too sure about gesso off obeche.