An interesting little problem ...

CAframer

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Nov 19, 2003
Posts
3,834
Loc
Orange County, CA
My customer's Mom was a fashion designer and artist. I did some interesting mat cuts for her a while ago (see this link).

Now she has brought in another piece painted by her Mom on fine silk. The silk has been glued onto stretcher bar (again glued not stretched)... it looks as though they temporarily pinned it while the glue dried then trimmed any excess silk and removed the pins. The silk only extends beyond the opening onto the stretcher about 3/8" or so. Whoever did this did a superb job of keeping the silk taut.

The piece was originally framed with a 2.1/4" mat on top of the stretcher, and then glass. The customer wants to reframe it in a similar manner BUT with a 4.1/4" mat and a new frame (one of LJ's new Marais series).

I am definitely NOT going to remove and refit the silk! So, the problem becomes how best to extend the stretcher. The rabbet depth of the moulding is only about the same as the depth of the stretcher, which may complicate options.

Right now I am contemplating either (a) gluing 2" wide x 5/8" deep extension pieces of pine to each of the sides of the stretcher and/or (b) screwing the stretcher to a ply backing sheet of the desired frame size with again a 2" extension ATWA. With option (b) offset clips will be needed to retain the package in the frame.

Does anyone have better suggestions? (i.e. Other than leaving it the existing size!)

Thanks,

[ 07-13-2006, 04:03 PM: Message edited by: CAframer ]
 
Maybe cutting a board with an opening for the back of the stretcher to go through, it fits into the frame as per normal and then you use offset clips to hold that in place.
 
We’ve used something like your option (b) a few times.

Since a tiny bit of the silk is “stretched” around the edge of the stretcher, we would avoid screwing or gluing anything onto the side.

Instead, we would build up enough layers of foam board around the perimeter of the stretcher bars to equal the depth of the stretcher and whatever width you needed, so that this “doughnut” surrounding the stretcher bars is snug. With a support backing (it can be fairly thin), then do what you have planned.

As you suggested, however, you will most likely have to use offset clips.
 
Sounds like a good application for LJ's Enhancers (170G or 171112 silver) use it to "frame" the existing silk at it's current size, then add the mat and outer frame.
Just a thought
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