The Framers Forum

Help ......

A customer came in today with the mount shown in the photo below and asked if we could supply it again?
It is Arqadia mountboard, but not recent, and has the code 560 PP on the back.

I told her it isn't in the Arqadia range now but we might be able to paint a mount to match (oh me and my big mouth). Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we might do that?

Rolf

Oh Dear Rolf. Think you have dropped yourself in it there.

It looks like a float 'n' dip type technique. You might just be able to do one something like it but matching it exactly.......

It could be that the cover paper is available somewhere as paper. Then you could stick it to mountboard. Or find something approximating and replace the first mount so they match.

Good Luck and if I turn up anything I'll let you know.

Thanks Peter,

It doesn't have to be an exact match (unless the MB exists in that form) they are happy with an approximation. Looking for similar paper to stick to the board is an idea I hadn't thought of, so thanks for that too.

Something to think about over the weekend anyway.

gooogle 'decorative papers' and you get quite few hits.

There are some nice ones here -> http://www.skycraft.com/StylesSampler.html


Somewhere, some framer will have a bit of that mountboard tucked away in their workshop.

Or how about taking some dark blue board and splashing on some live yoghurt and see what grows!

Thanks Peter, that's a good link I'll certainly check that out.

J2M, I read that as "splash it on and see what glows" Might be right too.

Rolf

You could try bookbinders suppliers like http://store.falkiners.com/store/ they have heck of a lot to choose from, good luck Rolf hope you find a way to do it

Thanks Steve,

Can't see exactly what I was after though but there are some great paper patterns and definitely worth adding the link to my resource folder for future reference.

Rolf

Another option would be to print it on an inkjet
I print onto mountboard using n Epson 7890 but most of the large epson rage will do it.

You would need to scan it in and somehow tile the scanned image to make it bigger before printing, not an easy task but would work if all else fails....

Thanks Steve,

A good idea that also occurred to me as well. We have an Epson 7800 but the colours are not coming out correctly despite making adjustments and also trying with a new image.

I think a stab at hand painting will be going on this week and if I think it's worth sharing I'll pop an image up here when I've done it.

Cheers, Rolf

you could print on paper and laminate to mountboard to get round the issue of the colours maybe

Is you scanner, monitor and printer custom colour profiled?

I reckon you could get something equally grotesque by stippling, with a natural (artists) sponge.

I see three basic colours, a light brown/beige, a darker brown and a dark blue. Mix your colours and test - maybe watercolour for the lightest one and acrylic for the other two.

Apply a wash of the lightest colour with a wide flat brush*, or even a roller, let it dry and then apply another coat the same, but while it's wet, set about it with the sponge - stipple it. Let it dry. Apply the next colour with the sponge, by dabbing it on in blotches, (stippling) let it dry then apply another 'coat' of blotches the same colour, but before they dry, set about them with the (dry) sponge

Let that dry and then repeat with the dark blue. If you want to add some flecks along the way then load a toothbrush with paint, shake the excess off and create a spray by running your thumb nail along the bristles, or do that after the whole thing is completed, but use bleach.

Don't do this on a mount cut-to-size or you'll get it on the bevel, also don't do it over the whole board before you cut the aperture. Cut the aperture 25mm smaller than you require, paint and then re-cut to size.


* Or even start with a board that colour.

It's not very different from what Brian Wolf used to do on mounts, just bigger

Thanks for the suggestions once again folks, I think what I'll try first this week is the hand painting option along the lines suggested by Robo.

Thanks Robo for the in depth description, I shall certainly try that both on the board and on good quality paper and we'll see what comes out the best.