The Framers Forum

Hi all,

We've had a new customer today who has brough in some beatiful embroidered silk pieces, and wants them box framed with spacers painted to match the colour of the frame. She doesn't want any mounts. She wants the edges of the silk to sit under the spacers, but is concerned about any acids etc in the paint damaging the silk. Any ideas how I can get around this without using something that will be visible?

Thanks!

Chris.

I think that when conservation issues are raised, particularly by the customer, then conservation should always win over aesthetics!

Enclosing a painted surface in a frame may cause more problems then just being concerned about the paint being in contact with the art. Outgassing from the paint could also be a concern?

My approach would be not to paint a spacer but to use either an acid free foamboard faced with a suitable colour mountboard or laminate several sheets of conservation board and again faced with a suitable colour. Four sheets of 1.4mm board will give you a spacer with a thickness of approximately 6mm. Foamboard would be my first choice.

I don’t think that, aesthetically speaking, the spacers are that important in exact colour matches. I’ve painted spacers before to match either the frame or the window/undermount and found that just a close match is good enough and looks fine when the frame is finished. So don’t worry about an exact match to the frame and choose a mountboard colour that is close enough.

If colour choice is limited then I'd go for a dark colour and it will be fine.

Conservation, conservation, conservation (but not necessarily in that order)

Just to say, I use painted wooden spacers in many frames but never in direct contact with the artwork. I do line the bottom of the spacer with barrier conservation board to protect the undermount.

I use acrylic and F&B estate paints and never had a problem with outgassing (as far as I now) but with these jobs aesthetics win over preservation and the customer knows this.

Not all paints are going to give you an out gassing problem, but you do need to know about the chemistry of the paint you are using. Many of the chalky emulsion paints are using binders formulated from environmental friendly ingredients and a lot of these are also conversation friendly as well. You will need to check this out with the supplier's helpline and know enough to ask a few questions.

Unfortunately, the paint is not the only issue to consider. Any wooden spacers should be considered as a potential source, of acidic contamination and precautions to provide a permanent barrier against any acid migrating from the wood to the customers artwork, or needlework should be considered in order to mitigate this risk to the customers property. If you are in the habit of following good conversation measures as normal, this is a good thing to let this be known to potential customers, as a lot of customers will take this seriously and it will generate follow on business.

It is reasonable to expect you as the framer to advise the customer of the issues and also for framer to have the knowledge to be able to incorporate good long term protection for the customers property. This is not a difficult this to do and my I suggest in the case of the spacers that the Linco frame sealing tape with the build in aluminum foil barrier is both easy to wrap around the spacer, but also it takes water based paint very well if the spacers require painting. I'm not stingy with the tape, but allow a good overlap of the tape to ensure complete protection.

If you are using a good chalk based paint and painting over the mitres, the chalk contains a significant amount of alkaline material, which will help neutralise acid escaping a the areas where you have cut and mitred the wrapped spacers. My personal preference is to apply two coats of paint follwed by two coats of dead flat polyvine wax finish clear varnish. I think that two coats are better than one as the second coat will help to cover any slight spot where it has not been adequately covered with the first coat.

Thank you both for your replies- most appreciated!