The Framers Forum

I just got some compo in the post. It’s a lot harder than I imagined. How do you shape it and press it in to moulds?

I do it in a cheap Tesco food steamer. It takes a while to soften. What prepared surface are you sticking it on to? The nature of what you are sticking it on to can be important. A little wet gesso is supposed to be good. I have not done any for a long time now, but "Hard as nails" seems to work.

I cheat a bit now and use casting resin and powder pigment instead of compo these days. It's not any less effort than using the compo, but it does not need to be pressed into the mould using pressure, you just pour it in.

You've got a bit more shopping to do. You will need,
Almond oil - try the chemists
Talcum powder - a fair bit
Blue nitrile or vinyl gloves
A snap-off blade knife
and either a small microwave or stove with small saucepan and flour sieve.
First thing is to brush the almond oil into the mould. You'll need to do this repeatedly until the wood is well soaked in oil.
Next is to gradually warm the compo either in a low setting microwave or sitting in the flour sieve over a boiling pan of water. Go for 10 sec intervals in the microwave. You will need to liberally dust your gloved hands with talc as the compo warms.
When the compo has become a bit more maleable, trim off an amount that should fill the mould you're using.
Now heat that further until it becomes like soft putty. Overheat it and it becomes like blancmange and will burn your hands!
Works it well between your hands, adding talc to stop it becoming sticky, re-oil the mould and press the compo into the mould with your fingers.
Now press a slightly oiled flat of wood over the compo and press down hard. I use a book-press but clamps will do otherwise. Leave in the mould for 3 to 4 minutes and then release. If everything has gone well you will have a clean positive impression from the mould.
Now using a long length of the snap off knife, cut away the decoration you require. Peel the remaining scrap off the wood flat and mix with more compo for another pressing.
The decoration can be glued to the frame with PVA diluted with 1/3 water. It will set rock hard in 24 hours.
Ignore the supermarket almond oil - it's too light for this purpose.
Come back with any questions.

Very good tutorial Vintage Frame!!!
Thank you

I could have done with knowing some of that rather than playing it by ear some years ago. Trying to do it all by guesswork is largely a waste of time and the money spent on materials. I've tried using all sorts of things including polymer clay. I gave up in the end and did it myself mostly with two part wood filler, or two part casting resin. I reckon that you need lots of patience and plenty of practice to do this with real compo. Predictably I took the easy way out in the end. As usually if all else fails, I go for the quick, simple and easy method, which unfortunately is two part resin, not compo. I take my hat off to those who can do it with real compo. I have carved a few mould patterns using an old lino carving set, I don't suppose it's the best way of doing it, but you can get by using it.

The results were a bit varied, some were pretty good, some were not that good. I think that the short handle did not help very much. I've picked a few old carving chisels, but I've not got a complete set and was having a bit of a go, before my stroke. I'm still meaning to give it a go as my right hand improves, mostly to try and get a bit more improvement in what I can do with my right hand. Unfortunately the location of my stroke was in the part of my brain that controls the co-ordination of my right arm and right leg. I have got quite a bit back in my right hand, but my right leg is not expected to recover to the same extend, which the physios tell me is a lot more difficult and the level of recovery is much less in the lower limb compared to the upper limb.

In spite of try to carve my own mould patterns, it's a lot easier to take impressions from the compo ornament removed from older frames. Removing layers of paint from old compo ornamentation, has not been all that successful for me. Best to go for compo ornamentation, without too many layers of thick paint.