The Framers Forum

A few year's ago a rather posh looking lady with a large dark rather depressing but very new, traditional dutch style print came in. How would you like it to look I asked, Um a bit um Knack***d the lady replied, Ah do you mean distressed I sugested politely. No knack***d was the answer. Ah so how Hmm, knack***d would you like it to be, just a bit or very?. well actually i would like it to look as if it has been in the loft for year's got a bit sort of manky lookin & kicked about a bit with a few scratches & scuff's sort of Knacke**d then brought out & cleaned up a bit.
Ok, what moulding & mount would you like & how much would you like to spend ?. something that look's old & under £140.00 was the answer. darkish brown with a bit of gold? & can you make the card bit sort of tobacco stained too? . Ok no problem come back in a couple of week's.

end result I found 2 pieces of rather fancy shaped but dullish brown with a bit of tarnished looking gold slightly damaged moulding that had been hanging around for year's, gave it a bit of a sanding to take off some of the finish, stained exposed bit's slightly darker stained the mount with a light tea wash then stippled a few foxing mark's here & there added a slip to the mount with sligtly peeled back look & a little black/grey paint in the corner's then added rottenstone (how hard is it to cut some thing to be slightly off when you have spent year's trying to attain perfection) put the thing together & waxed over the moulding. Result ,the lady cried when she saw it, That is just perfect, paid me then gave me another £10.00 & has been a regular customer ever since
strangely in contrast every thing I have made for her since has been ultra modern

it has to be said that I had never before tried to antique a frame to this degree, the tea idea came from a local furniture "Restorer" & do not recomend it on any art work of value, at the end of the day this was done on the mount of a £10.00 comercial print & discussed with the client before application due to my worrie's about tannin in the tea, I have since obtained simular result's with a very light wash mix of ochre & burnt umber watercolour paints

we do similar 'nasty' things to replica medals to either make 'em look old or to match existing medals! (mainly ww2 stars) which vary so much in colour etc.

I love doing knackered frames. It's very therpootic. I had some plain 3" pine reverse that I got at the 'right' price. Full of knots and splits. A few coats of thick paint blasted with a hot air gun to make it blister makes a very interesting finish. Slap on a coat of dark brown, dab a bit of gold on in patches. Bang with hammer and scratch with a sharp implement. When all that has dried, a good waxing with coarse wirewool and a rub with a manky duster. Looks brilliant.

A good way I found for making convincing looking knocks is to get some gravel. Put it on the frame and with a scrap piece of wood on top, bang it with a hammer.

Woodworm? For really authentic worm holes you can beat a Dremel with a fine engraving tool. Drag it along the surface to simulate wormy 'tracks'.

Or..... for a really knackered look, put the frame into a local auction with a huge reserve. It won't sell but it is guaranteed to come back in the said state.

Yep my dremel is one of my fave toy's great for all sorts of things, but keeping a straight face with the lady was rather difficult somehow i managed, my son went out after a few min's & after she had gone came back in still in hysteric's about the ladie's insistence on the word knackered