Rollright Stones

These beautiful paintings of the Rollright Stones are by Mandy Selhurst. We framed a set of three in these hand painted white frames for Mandy and they are now hanging in the SOTA gallery in Witney. I'd imagine they'll sell very quickly so head over to SOTA and take a look at them before they're snapped up.

You can find out more about Mandy’s work at http://www.mandyselhurst.com

…and more about the SOTA Gallery here http://www.sotagallery.co.uk

Darren Woodhead

Here we have a beautiful print by Darren Woodhead. I really like the way the customer chose to frame this, with an elegant double mount, simple waxed oak frame and 'invisible' Artglass. It's given the framing a very gentle, natural feel that perfectly compliments the artwork. You can find out more about Darren and his work at http://darrenwoodhead.com/

French Town Photo

Another frame using the black Mantilla frame, this time housing a wonderful warm photo of a French town. The detail in this picture is superb, you could look into it for hours and the overall effect is so vibrant. A double mount finishes it all off. Gorgeous :-)

Amazing Collage

Here is a piece by a customer of ours who makes these amazing collages commemorating her family members birthdays, anniversaries etc. They are so detailed, with photos, tickets, badges, all sorts of things highlighting different memories and events in someone's life. Framed in these rich, ornate silver frames, with double mounting on the main image and a single mount opening for a small dedication at the bottom they make a wonderful gift for the recipient and an amazing record of memories to be treasured. A great idea for anyone wanting to hand make a really special gift.

Harry Lange

This is a very special piece, a drawing by a chap called Harry Lange. Harry was a production designer in the movie business who work on 2001, Star Wars, Bond movies, all sorts of amazing things. He also gave me a job as a runner and model maker when I was a wee lad, many, many years ago. So it was a delight to have this little sketch in for framing. The customer was a carpenter by trade and gave us a free hand on the framing, so we had to select a nice piece of oak for the frame and do something a bit special with it. We opted to use a button polish to finish the wood, this is a type of French Polish and has given the wood this glorious warm colour, inside we used a double mount and the top mount has been floated to give a shadow effect. UV glass finishes the piece off, protecting the artwork. A wonderful thing to get to frame, reminded me of some great times :-)

Beautiful old frame in for repairs

Here is a frame a customer bought in along with a number of other framing jobs. It's a beautiful frame, but was looking pretty bashed about, with cracks and chips all over, it was also the wrong size for any of their artwork, but quite rightly, they wanted to do something with such a lovely ornate frame. We suggested adding a mirror and doing some basic restoration to give it a new lease of life and the customer was delighted with the idea. Initially we gave the frame a good clean, removing any loose pieces, re-gluing what we could. Then we used a sculpting putty to fill cracks and re-model certain areas of carving. Once dry the puttied areas were painted with a red Bole and after more drying time we mixed a gold wax to match the rest of the frame. Adding a beveled mirror and giving everything a final polish finished the job and bought this beautiful frame back to life. Mirrors available with or without giant Cuckoo logos in the middle ;)

Shabby Chic

To frame these two beautiful pastel portraits our client wanted something modern, but with a French, shabby chic feel. We accomplished this by selecting a clean, modern, bare wood moulding and giving it a shabby chic finish. To get this look we first primed the wood and then painted it in a red/brown tone to match the pastels used in the artwork. Once dry, this was over painted in a warm, off-white colour and again left to dry. The frames are then gently sanded to reveal just the right amount of the colour underneath. A couple of washes of thin off-white we're then applied to soften the effect and after a final dry the frames were waxed and polished. This has given the frames a lovely warm, soft feel that perfectly matches the pastel portraits of these two sisters.

Wax Crayons

I hadn't seen a picture like this in ages, the paper is coloured using wax crayons, this is then painted over in black and the design then scratched thought the paint to reveal the colours below. The floral design on this example works really well and makes a gorgeous piece of art. We used a black mount with a white core to give the artwork a clean, crisp edge and then added a hand-painted white frame and standard glass. A lovely memory of a young artist at work.

Eric Ravilious

Eric Ravilious was a fabulous artist and here's a print by him we had in for framing last week. This is a wonderful example of his work and we've used a delicious Mantilla frame, double mount and Artglass to present it beautifully. The Mantilla range of frames has been proving very popular of late, it comes in Black, Gold, Silver and Ivory and has a gorgeous satin finish that adds a luxury touch to those special pieces of artwork, along with the 'invisible' Artglass, this is the perfect way to frame such a fantastic work of art.

Large pictures in thin frames...

Here we have a couple of large posters that needed framing in thin white frames. As these frames have minimal strength and the glass in them is pretty heavy, we needed to make a couple of 'sub frames' to hold everything together. A sub frame is simply a strong wooden frame attached to the rear of the main frame out of sight. The long thin Hockney poster was hung in the usual way with a cord across the back. But the large square Richter piece was too heavy for this, so we added two split batons to the top, these are the two strips of aluminium you can see in the photo. Each strip is one of a pair, with the other screwed to the wall, the two parts then lock into each other, securing the work firmly. It's a simple and strong way of hanging heavy pieces.

Valentines day.....for dogs....

With valentines day nearly upon us, I thought I'd post one of the more unusual jobs we've done recently. This is a canvas print of two dog cherubs!...It's going to be hanging in a London bar this Friday night, so owners can have their dogs pose,in couples, in front of it... and have their photos taken...I told you it was unusual :-) We've taken the rolled canvas and put it onto stretcher bars, so a nice simple job and something very different for the romantic dog lover :-)

Oxford International Art Fair

This weekend Oxford plays host to the Oxford International Art Fair…

 “Bringing the best selected artworks to Oxford by top emerging artists from around the world for everyone to enjoy. Giving Art Collectors and Art Enthusiast a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy directly from the artist that has travelled all the way to Oxford. A unique experience for both visitors and exhibitor, at the beautiful Oxford Town Hall, a jewel at the heart of the historic city of Oxford.” 

One of the artists taking part is Amarita Vargas and this picture titled ‘Unity’ is one of the works we’ve framed up for her this week. Her work ranges from abstract to figurative and all have a beautiful flow to them. This piece is framed in limed Ash, with a simple snow white mount.

The exhibition is open today 11.00 to 5.00 and tomorrow 11.00 to 3.00. Entry is Free. For further information go to http://www.oxfordinternationalartfair.com

For further information on Amarita’s work take a look at http://www.amaritavargas.com

Greyhounds

Here we have a lovely pastel drawing of two greyhounds with a wonderful sense of movement to it. We’ve used a double mount and classic black wooden frame to give a bold and unfussy look that sets off the subtle monochrome colour of the piece.

Tim Rudman photographs

These two works by fine art photographer Tim Rudman are handmade silver gelatin fine art prints. They have a beautiful velvet quality to the grain that reminds me of early photography, but the composition of both pieces is thoroughly modern.

Thin black frames, white mounts and UV glass set them off and protect them perfectly.

You can find out more about Tim's work and purchase his fabulous photos at http://www.timrudman.com

Spring Fair 2014

Yesterday we visited the Spring Fair at the NEC in Birmingham. Covering everything from Home Interiors to Jewellery, it’s a vast exhibition showcasing the latest designs and trends for 2014.

With nearly 300000 new products on display there’s a lot to take in, so after a brief detour for coffee, we headed straight to the Art & Framing Hall…

Chunky Black/White frames are proving very popular with Art publishers showing lots of graphic comic & cartoon images, everything from old Beano covers to Moomin & Marvel characters.

In a similar vein the popularity of artwork based on famous faces shows no signs of slowing down, a large Frank Sinatra portrait incorporating broken records to form his suit and hat was probably the standout piece, this was thickly resined and presented in another chunky black frame, this one of a highly glossed finish.

Resin was very prominent on everything from the famous faces, to abstracts and 3D woodland scenes similar to the ones Graham does here at The Cuckoo’s Nest. Framing on these resined pieces came in three distinct styles. None, on the abstracts, chunky black on the portraits and highly ornate on the 3D works.

Square, loosely painted landscapes and the perennial favourites, Cow & Hare portraits were still going strong, chunky white frames looking like the trend for these in 2014.

After exploring the art publishers, we headed off to see some of the frame stands, meeting up with current suppliers and making some new friends. After much chatting and now armed with the latest catalogues and leaflets for machines you never knew you needed, we headed for home…New additions to our frame mouldings ordered, new ready made frames on the way, new website up and running…we’re off to a flying start in 2014 :)

For the intrepid explorer

We've framed several of these Scratch Maps and they make a fantastic gift for the intrepid explorer in your life. This one we've framed up in a stylish bronze frame, the map has been mounted on stiff board for support and there’s no glass.

This particular map came from https://www.luckies.co.uk