Stacked and hand finished.

[Not your average framer]

As some will already know, I'm getting together some hand finished samples and I thought I would be fun to do something inspired by this first picture taken from a 2000 - 2001 Byron catalogue. I fancy that this particular moulding was probably manufactured by Enrique Lopez, the famous Spanish moulding manufacturer.

Byron 0137-11125 (from 2000-2001 Byron catalogue).jpg (33.88 KiB) Viewed 9396 times

The profile is a stacked combination of Rose and Holis PW403 Obeche, a 9mm x 9mm pine spacer, a 12mm x 6mm ramin spacer and an old Magnolia Mouldings embossed moulding, which I was able to get a large quantity of from a framer who was closing down.

Sorry about the poor quality of the photo, I forgot to photograph it before I gave it a Polyvine wax effect varnish finish and unfortunately this does strange things in conjunction with the flash on my camera. I managed to get some of the varnish off using a solvent and I put a wet piece of tissue from between my sheets of float glass over the flash window to try and tone down the effects of the flash. It's not perfect, but at least it gives the general idea.

Dscf0093.jpg (249.24 KiB) Viewed 9396 times

The colours in the photo are still a bit strange, the green looking wash is in fact a blue grey, much of the red is in fact gold and the blue is very much lighter and more subtile than the picture shows, but at least it shows how stacked mouldings can enable you to recreate something silimar to the odd discontinued moulding if the need to do so arises.

As you will see, the assembled combination is completely flush at the reverse face and this is something I like to acheive when I can. Usually with a reasonable rebate depth on the main moulding I can usually get a reasonably nice fit and line up. If only all useful bare wood mouldings had good rebate depths like this one, unfortunately this is not always the case!

Can anyone guess how I get the textured effect?

[silvercleave]

paint mixed with vermiculite?

[Not your average framer]

paint mixed with vermiculite?

Hi Ian,

Correct! I think I gave enough clues in my training for hand finishing thread.

Vermculite is not available in conveniently sizes particules for this particular type of use, so we have to be able to do our own processing before adding it to paint. Also, there are different grades of vermiculite in both particule size and density.

Vermiculite is an exfoliated mineral, this is a particular type of rock which when heated very rapidly to high temperatures, it expands drmatically creating internal capilary voids which readily absorb liquids like a sponge. When this liquid is the binder in a paint, the vermiculite becomes firmly locked into and part of that painted finish.

It is important when adding vermiculite to paint for texture that the paint have much more of the binding agent than normal paint, because of the amount of binder which will be absorbed into the vermiculite. This will mean that there is less binder left in the rest of the paint to bind the pigment particules together, or to enable the paint to securely bond to the surface to which the paint is to be applied.

Larger particules of vermiculite can be used to selectively remove areas of colour washes to produce interesting and dramatic finishes and effects. There are of course different techniques in how this is done, to achieve a large number of different desired results.

Although I have not found any reference to vermiculite being used in fillers, or structural adhesives, this is an obvious use. Large gaps can be filled as the dimensional stability created by the addition of the vermiculite will mitigate much of any tendancy of the normal properties of the adhesive or binder to shrink as it dries, or sets.

Vermiculite is a very interesting and useful material, which with a little imagination we can ALL find new uses for. LIke so many of the apparently new techniques which I will be teaching on the hand finished course, it ain't rocket science and we can ALL use and understand such techniques with ease and success.

[Not your average framer]

BTW, here is an enlarged section of one of the above photos, which makes it easier to see how the separate mouldings and spacers have been joined.

Dscf0095.jpg (71.61 KiB) Viewed 9360 times

For some strange reason the areas of gold are slightly more gold looking on this expanded picture.

[silvercleave]

Mark

Have you tried an electric blender to reduce the granular size?

Ian

[stcstc]

mark

i am curious as to the costs involved in doing this

what are the material costs, and how long would it take to do a frame?

[Not your average framer]

Hi Stephen,

It has taken a while getting around to doing this, in fact I've been thinking about this for a very long time and I took at least one hour just doing this first sample, because I was not sure how it would be best how to do it.

As you can imagine, for any hand finishing technique to be worth doing it needs to be relatively quick and easy to do, otherwise it won't be a profitable thing to do. The time taken to do this will depend upon the size of the frame and in this particular case, it would make good sense to reduce time, effort and cost by reducing this to a simple two moulding combination.

The actual hand finishing bit is dead easy once you have settled upon the best way of doing it. It literally only takes a few minutes to do a small sample and it's the kind of finish which I can easily imagine Pete Bingham doing as a Spring fair demonstration.

Like I said, it's not rocket science, but there is a particular sequence which works best. In future I will be doing things differently and using a different sequence and technique to this first one. That said, I'm not joking, it's really easy to do!

[Not your average framer]

Have you tried an electric blender to reduce the granular size?

No, I don't think it would work. This stuff is incredibly light and would almost certainly just fly around in side the blender, just bouncing of the blades. It is also very flexible, springy and tough. I suspect that this is why they don't sell it in very fine granulated sizes.

I have a manual flour grinder, it's a precision be of kit with an adjustable spacing between the two grindstones and I grind all sorts of stuff to add specks of colour to hand finishes, but there is another way of doing it as I will demonstrate on the course.

[prospero]

Nice one Mark.

I might have a crack at the bluey one if I get a mo.....

[stcstc]

mark

so for a 20*16 frame for example

how much time would it take

and how much materials cost would there be

[Not your average framer]

Well, lets say that the moulding is 40mm wide and a relatively easy shape to work on, then perhaps 30 to 40 minutes.

Mind you, successful hand finishers know how to work at an intense pace. It's all about speed and technique.

There's nothing laid back about making a living if you are a busy hand finishing framer.

[Not your average framer]

Hi Stephen,

The material costs are always of primary concern and a lot of care is normally taken when choosing mouldings for a job, as this will largely determine your profitability. The reality is that customers who want something hand finished have to be prepared to pay the extra.

Quite often a large profile produced by stacking smaller profile will reduce the material cost, if you are careful which mouldings you choose, but it will add more time to stack and glue the mouldings.

It's a very different business approach and completely different way of thinking and doing things. Comparisons with normal framing practices and framing businesses are very hard to make relevent, or explain to those who don't do hand finishing

[Not your average framer]

Almost all paint effects are easy, it's just the paint manufacturers that don't want everyone else to know this.

I also have methods for producing cracked, or wrinkled paint and cracked gesso effects. All these things are basic chemistry and physics. As I keep saying it's not rocket science and anyone can learn how to do these things!

[wrxsti555]

HI Mark
Just to correct you the moulding you have tried to copy is not from Lopez. It was manufactured by Lapi Cornici. They have gone bust now, but i've still got some stock left. Might have saved you a lot of time with a visit to our showroom again!
Shaun

[Not your average framer]

Hi Shaun,

Thanks for putting me right on that one. You learn something new all the time.

As you may have perhaps guessed, I did this particular sample as an illustration to show that hand finishing need not be just about slapping a bit of paint onto a piece of moulding, but that even something difficult can be copied if the requirement arises.

Hand finishing is also about creativity, imagination, perception of quality and value, plus attracting customers will want something special. Hand finished frames are finished over the mitres, so that you can't see the join and this puts them in a different class to normal frames. The finishes look very different, much more silky rather than the usual glossy mass produced product.

Not only that, but those framers who are into hand finishing, generally are driven by a passion for being a creator rather than just a processor of framing orders. Creativity has always given me a big buzz and that's a large part of why I do it. Also it makes my business very different and in todays challenging trading conditions, it gives me a very helpful unique attraction to the right sort of customers.

Customers for hand finished framing are very discerning and know exactly what they want. They are willing to pay the extra to something classy to hang on their walls and they also want to show it of to their friends. Some of these friends will want to know where they got that frame made and hopefully will bring their business to you as well.

It's word of mouth at it's best, targetted at the right end of the market. People who are willing to pay the extra for something special, will also have friends in the same income bracket and who want to have the same sort of nice things. It's a tribal thing and all about wanting to be seen to be successful and part of that particular "set".

[wrxsti555]

Totally agree Mark. I love hand finishing. The more framers doing so, the more plain woods i sell !!!!
Shaun