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