Can this moulding be saved?

[Sherry Lee]

I have about 100 ft. of moulding (vendor is out of business) that is SIMILAR to MAX moulding #603756; black with beige/gray antiquing between the lines. The antiquing is flawed; it did not cover evenly, leaving undesireable patterns.

At first I started to toss it, but then realized that if I could fix this EASILY, it is great moulding - especially for old black/'white' photos.

I played around with a scrap and was able to fix it using Prismacolor markers, but doing 100 ft. would shoot the price up to 14k gold equivalant! Attempting 'blending' with fine steel wool would mar the black finish.

Suggestions? Please, not firewood - our air is bad enough in the Phoenix valley!

 

[Terry Scidmore CPF]

what ever you decide to do, don't try to "fix" the problem. find a solution that makes the problem look "planned".

1)lay a few sticks out on floor in a garage or other sheltered area, stand on a step stool, and shoot spray paint in desired colors into the air over the sticks. It floats down and makes a nice speckled look. I liked the look of a fine mist of silver and gold over grey and black moulding.

You can mix sprays, combining colors and textures.

2)a thin wash of acrylic paint, wiped on with a sponge, then quickly wiped off.

3)rub and buff or treasure gold, slightly thined and put on with a cloth.

4)What ever you do, advertise it as "uniquely antiqued", emphasizing the "hand embellished finish" and the fact that each stick is "one of a kind". Stress that you cannot reproduce this kind of finish.

My old boss used to give me this kind of challenge. Once sold nearly 1000 feet of wide crushed velvet liner material in avocado, rust, and harvest gold by painting it, spraying it with spray paint, and making it into stock frames for artists. They loved it! Each frame was tagged as an "original".

 

[Baer Charlton]

Sherry, come to PPFA in Las Vegas.. and take Linda Wassel's class... With a little help from Bomar... a few items stolen from the kitchen.. man you never seen such nice 14K work...and fast.

That "flawed" moulding is nothing more than "unfinished money".

 

[Dave]

Terry...I like your idea! I have about 500' left of moulding still in stock that my grandfather probably bought in the 50's and 60's. Some of it is in great shape and classic patterns that I'm selling well and getting a good price for, but much of it, due to various moves and handling is bruised, scratched or dented... naturally distressed! The quality of the wood is generally much better than what we can get now too.

Sounds like a fun artist party! It would be a gala event in honor of Jackson Pollock.

Designer, limited edition mouldings...mm-mm...uniquely available only at this location. No one else's art would be wearing it on their walls! Just think what some of these mouldings that my grandfather paid nine cents a foot for will bring! There's gold in them there mouldings!

It would definately be more fun than throwing it away for a pitance in bins at a sidewalk sale...

I'm always looking for a good excuse for gathering creative folks and this would be a way to mix business with pleasure.

To respond to Sherry though...

I'd be hesitant to use Prismacolor markers. Prismacolor are alcohol dye based markers and over time will fade and change color. Black usually turns a yellowish gray. I try to resist touching up any mouldings with markers and use oil colors instead which give you much more control and permanence.

Quite often when a customer brings in an old and battered wood frame, I'll choose an appropriate oil color and smear it all over the frame then take a soft cloth and rub it into the frame with amazing results. Simple, yet messy but old wood frames look (and smell) gorgeous. You need to allow several days for them to dry though. I've found the most useful pigmented oil colors to be Burnt and Raw Umber, Transparent Gold Ochre, Brown Madder Alizarin, Mars Black, Van Dyke Brown and Charcoal and Davy's Gray, Metalic Gold and Silver and Buff Titanium. Student grade is perfectly fine, however Transparent Gold Ochre and Brown Madder Alizarin are generally only available in artist grade and I believe Buff Titanium (love that name!) is only available from Daler-Rowney while the others are Winsor & Newton. I use most all these colors and others daily for frame touch up also.

I'm not familar with your particular moulding so I'm not sure if they would be appropriate candidates for touching up with oils but if you don't do the creative party route and use markers you might want to consider using some sort of pigmented marker.

Dave Makielski

 

[Terry Scidmore CPF]

Go for it, Dave! I have fond memories of turning "junque" into "art" for my old boss. It really was a lot of fun to try to figure out how to make something out of the stuff he gave us - mismatched paint from the paint store, "specials" on odd colored spray paint, left over stain from his house, old barns and driftwood, even an old gas can he ran over in his driveway one time became a metal virgin mary scupture on a linen covered board with a "florentined" metal frame and crushed velvet liner.

Another thing we did with moulding was take it to the auto body shop down the street. When they owed us money for something, we would have them spray paint some unfinished moulding in auto body grey. It was a great base color.

 

[Framerguy]

Another thing we did with moulding was take it to the auto body shop down the street. When they owed us money for something, we would have them spray paint some unfinished moulding in auto body grey. It was a great base color.

YES!! I like your mode of thinking, Terry, support your local friendly bodyshop!!

During my 33 years in the bodyshop I salvaged factory new refrigerators for our local appliance store, finished exterior doors for the local lumberyard and a few contractors, did many boat hulls for the marina people on the lake where I lived, and many other non-autobody related jobs that required painting. I never turned down any job that I could fit into the shop except for a large fleet of fuel oil delivery trucks that were so coated in sticky aged fuel oil that I didn't see the advantage in tackling the cleaning of those dirty trucks and passed the job on to a couple of guys in the next town.

As far as I know they are STILL working on that fleet trying to get the old fuel oil off those tanks!!

 

[jframe]

Haven't used them in years, but Design Master is a brand of floral spray that has an adjustable nozzle on the can. You can easily spray a mist or completely coat something.