The Framers Forum

I have been asked to frame a painting on heavy(ish) weight (+300gsm) paper. The painting is of flowers and the artist has used flakes of old paint and stuck these flakes onto the painting to resemble pollen. She has also finished the petals using powder and chalk set with fixative spray)
The painting has been loosly rolled and needs flattening. The curl is slight and may even straighten itself if hung up for a while (I think/hope)
Size of the artwork is 1480mm x 880mm. (did not make a typing mistake)
Glass ? If so what thickness
Perspex? If so what thickness
How do I flatten such a big picture?
Can't go through a cold laminator - will crush the bits and I don't know of a hot process machine big enough.
By the way the painting must have a 60mm mount around it as well.
As I am new to framing I need all the help I can get on this one please.
Thank you
Heather

Sometimes "artists" are their own worst enemies.

300 gm/m paper even with a slight curl from loose rolling is a no win to become flat again. I would use 6mm acrylic for glazing.

Think one of these is needed:

My grateful thanks to Mitreman who spent a lot of time talking through my options.
Learnt a lot from speaking to him.
I have given the artwork back to the artist to re-stretch the paper with strict instructions to keep it flat..
Having gained valuable advice I feel reassured about this job.
Will post my progress when the customer accepts my quote.
Many thanks
Heather

Another case of an artist not thinking things though. An old practice for large scale watercolours was to mount the paper on thin canvas and put it on stretcher bars. This was done prior to doing the painting I might add. I re-framed a Thorburn w/c a few years back which was on cartridge paper mounted in this way. It was about 47" long. In spite of being 100+ years old it was as good as the day it was painted.

It may be possible to do similar in this case, but if the painting has heavily textured paint on it there is the risk of damage in applying pressure in the bonding process.

JFeig wrote:Sometimes "artists" are their own worst enemies.

No make that ALL

It is very hard to find an artist with an ounce of commercial sense. You can tell them till you are blue in the face what size is economical to frame, then they go off on one because they don't want to lose their right to artistic expression. Same with subject matter, my and business partner and I can guide an artist to what is selling, but then they just bring you a portfolio full of carp because they didn't or didn't want to listen to the brief.

Hey but that is why they are artists

[quote="Graysalchemy"
It is very hard to find an artist with an ounce of commercial sense. You can tell them till you are blue in the face what size is economical to frame, then they go off on one because they don't want to lose their right to artistic expression. Same with subject matter, my and business partner and I can guide an artist to what is selling, but then they just bring you a portfolio full of carp because they didn't or didn't want to listen to the brief.

Hey but that is why they are artists [/quote]


A rather patronising post there! Just think that if it weren't for the Artists then there wouldn't be any reason for the framer. Maybe a case of - those that can paint, those that can't frame!!!"

I've met a lot of artists over the years and there is quite a lot of force in what AG says. Some are in tune with the practicalities and some have no idea. The best ones will produce work that is simple (hence cheaper) to frame. Others, (like the subject of this thread) just get an idea and grab the nearest bit of paper...... The worst ones are large pastels. Very vulnerable to damage and won't sit still in a frame. Shed pigments and generally make life difficult. On the whole, the difficulty in framing the work is inversely proportional to the amount they want to spend.

Hi Heather - I've only just seen this one...

...I am glad you decided to stay away from a press or laminator for this job - they would have trashed it in a bigger way than the artist has tried to do by rolling...

...remember the quote of the day at the training school - "it's fraught with danger"

Well done to Mitreman for providing some good support