Veneered Frames - continued

All the frame lenghts have been in the veneer press for 8 hours; are taken out and left to dry overnight.

Each lenght is cut out and trimed.

The veneers are now "cleaned-up". I find the best grits are 180 and 360, to achieve a good finish. 180 grit removes enough top material without the disaster of sanding through the veneer.

Finally the lenghts are rebated and profiled ready for assembly into frames. They will then be stained and varnished etc. etc.

Making some Veneered Frames

I'm going to make several veneered frames in a traditional "slope profile". One of the frames is 3inch wide, so I've taken two pine stretchers and glued them together. Then shaped out the basic profile.

This profile will be veneered with Crown Rio Rosewood.

This is the rosewood often seen on Victorian print frames and silhouettes.

This is Burr Elm veneer that will be used on some smaller profiles.
I'll be using a vacume bag with Titebond glue to press the veneers.

This glue is an aliphatic pva with thermoplastic properties. This simply means that it can be reactivated with some heat - ie, a hot iron, if there are any "blisters" on the dried veneers.

Finishing a Hogarth Frame

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 The frame has now been joined and ready for finishing

The cherry wood is first stained with a dark van-dyke brown water stain. I then glaze a thinish coat of yellow ochre over this, to add some solidity to the colour. Next I paint the compo ornaments with yellow bole and top this, on the high points, with some red

As the running pattern ornament is to be oil gilded, I can  paint on several coats of black shellac without worrying too much if some gets on the ornaments. Three coats are usually sufficient and with careful de-nibbing between coats. When the black laquer is dry, the running pattern is sealed with a thin coat of clear shellac.
And when that is dry, I first mask out the blackened cherry wood, and apply a thin film of 12hour gold size. For the brightest gilding, it is always best to use a long set size and remove as much surplus as possible during application.

The ornaments are now gilded and the masking removed to reveal the completed work.
After allowing the frame to dry sufficiently, I first seal the gilding with some clear shellac and then attack the frame with  several distressing techniques to age the overall frame.
I'll then colour the gilding and cherry wood with several coats of Museum Ageing Glaze 2, before
polishing the black with some wax.

And there we have it, an antiqued Hogarth Frame.