The Framers Forum

Hi,

As mentioned in my recently posted introduction (on the Introductions message board - if thats the correct term for it) I have made a 'Tabernacle Frame' - my first attempt - for a double-portrait painting that I've recently completed (see attached - assuming I've been successful with the file attachment process - I can't tell).

I'm ready to paint and finish the frame, but am not quite sure what direction to take with it. I'm thinking black with gold-leaf for the inner-most frame that surrounds the painting itself.

I may also go fully medieval on it (or at least full Rennaisance) and introduce some calligraphic elements (names of the sitters at the top, and title at the bottom - possibly also in gold leaf if I can master the technique. Im thinking, I've gone this far, I may as well go the whole hog!)

But would welcome any thoughts and suggestions.

Thanks in advance!

Andy

Very nice work. I would paint the main body of the frame black and only gild the thin sloped bevel around the sight edge. Seeing that you have several different varieties of wood used in the construction, it would be best to fill up all the wood grain before painting.

The best and easiest is to use gesso, and seeing that you were going to apply gilding, it would be straight forward enough to just gesso the whole thing.

The gilding would look best water-laid, but with such a thin sight edge you might get away with oil gilding if you haven't yet got the hang of water-gilding.

Hi Andy,

What a great subject for your fist thread. I looks great, such a nice job. I am also a bit of a fan of tabernacle frames, they simply look the business and I shall be looking forward to seeing how this project continues.

Well done! I love it

Thanks very much for the feedback - you've captured exactly what I was most likely to do regarding the finishing: I'm more confident to proceed in that direction now. Will post the result on here when finished - might be a while though, whilst I discover gilding. Thanks also for the link for that!

Andy

Very Nice

Tabernacle frames seem to be hip cool and groovy at the moment.
Here's a link to another tabernacle frame build that is a real work of art.
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/16 ... gs.130843/