Help Corner Finishing on LJ Raphael Frame

[framing fashionista]

I am needing to smooth and refinish the corners of this LJ 517032 Raphael frame. I've never done anything like this but I guess there's no time like the present to learn... My thought was to smooth it with a dremel tool and then sandpaper. Also, any pointers on how to match the finish would be greatly appreciated.

The worst case scenario is I ruin the corner and we reorder a different profile from the same line.

Thanks!

 

[Pat Murphey]

I wouldn't touch it (and risk ruining it). That corner is well done and typical of chops with an aggressive pattern. If the customer wants matching corners let them pay for closed corners or, as you suggest, a different moulding.

 

[JRB]

I have done this a whole lot, I use sandpaper, carving tools, and a Dremil tool.

Carving is the easy part, matching their finish is not so easy. I use rottestone to make the colors have that dusty look. It is very hard to match the dust coat of the original moulding. I have quite often re-coated the entire frame. Casine paint is also good for doing this.

You can not get in trouble until you get your feet wet. Worst case scenario is you will have to buy more moulding.

When I make the sale, I usually add on an extra fee when I know I am going to do this. I don't tell the customer, I just put it in the quote. Half the time (not all the time) they don't even notice, they just pick up the job. My only reward for my trouble is a happy customer and knowing if they get a similar frame from someone else, it won't look so great.

John

2

 

[Rick Granick]

Even without doing any carving you can make the transition softer by using acrylic paints. I wouldn't overdo the effort. You don't want to risk having to replace it at the prices Raphael goes for.
Rick

 

[Dave]

I do this quite often too and live to regret it. The time involved is extremely difficult to charge for appropriately and 99 out of 100 customers don't know or see the difference.

I'm somewhere between Pat and Rick on this one and would suggest either don't mess with it or do minor coloration work to soften the mismatches.

If it was a leaf moulding I would suggest no carving and just softening the sharp valleys with Liberon Cremes and touching up with oil paints. You can do wonders this way in a very short controllable time.

Once you begin carving you open up a whole can of worms and quite often the look is not as natural as if you just left it alone.

 

[FramerDave]

At the places where it's not too much of a difference, like at the inside corner and on the rounded bit, you might be able to gently heat it with a heat gun and then work the compo down to a smoother transition with a burnishing bone.

Works on a lot of the Roma mouldings anyway. Try it out on some scrap before you screw up the finished frame.

 

[Luddite]

Soften the sharp edge with some fine sanpaper,or an emery board.Basecoat the "raw" area with dark brown(to match base color on frame) acrylic.Allow to dry.drybrush with an antique copper/bronze.allow to dry,then drybrush with a golden bronze.The tricky part is finding a matching metallic finish.I tend to get any metallic acrylics I can get my hands on,and can then mix some together to get the correct color...there are many available.I would topcoat my repair wth a small amount of polycrylic(minwax makes it).You can gently wash away any paint that does not match,with a small wet cloth,and start over,why I love acrylic. BTW,I`m terribly anal,and would see this corner,even if no one else did..It`s just me. (P.S.) the antiquing? mix some yellow ochre,white,and perhaps a tiny shot of black..athin into a wash.and lay it down on the fully dried metallic paint,use a dry paper towl to blot away excess from the raised areas) L.

 

[Puppyraiser]

We routinely carve off those "cliffs' and blend them in, matching the finish. As I teach in my "Not Quite Frame Restoration" class. Another thing I teach is "colors are colors" which is to say, production moulding colors are made from stock paints generally which means that a good art supplies store can probably match the color pretty accurately. Sometimes I have to layer two or three colors to get the exact finish. And it does look lots more professional...

 

[Richard Darling]

I wouldn't do anything in the sample corner you showed. Make sure the flat surface is colored to resemble the finish. The ones that I doctor up are when there's lots of peaks and valleys, and little pinnacles sticking up where they shouldn't be.

 

[Emibub]

The most I would do with that corner is possibly soften the sharp edge with some sandpaper and then color the exposed part of mitre with a color closer to the finish. I don't like it when those hard to match corner mouldings come in with perfectly matched corners for the samples. I prefer to show a corner not perfectly matched so the customer has no allusions about what they will get.

 

[Garnetta]

I just did this very frame for a customer who wasn't happy with the corners. I took Rock Hard and added it sparingly to the places in the corners that didn't match up. I blended the Rock Hard out, let it dry, and softly sanded where necessary. I then took Raw Umber and a Metallic Gold Galkyd oil paints and mixed them to just the right color. The color match was perfect. It took several thin coats of paint adjusting the mixture of the two colors which created the luminosicty of the rest of the frame.

Galkyds dry much faster than regular oil paints.

 

[Not your average framer]

The tricky part is finding a matching metallic finish.I tend to get any metallic acrylics I can get my hands on,and can then mix some together to get the correct color...there are many available.

Here's how I match metallic acrylic paints. I start with a suitable metallic which I can tint to the correct colour.

Then I add appropiately small amounts of good quality artists acrylic colour to get the right match, but here's the secret,

The pigments used in some colours are transparent, some are opaque. Adding a transparent colour to a metallic will not affect the brilliance of the finish, but even the smallest amount of an opaque colour will dull the brilliance.

So now you know how to get the colour and the brilliance to match the original. You'll need to do your research though. I keep two separate colour palettes of paints, one is all transarent colours the other all opaque colours.

 

[Framar]

Thanks for that transparent/opaque tip - you are truly "not your average framer"! I always achieve the desired results in the end but only after a lot of trial and error - and I have only been doing this for decades!

Can't wait to go and reorganize my acrylics!!!

Thanks! (PS - I used to have an elderly Great Aunt who lived in Devon! She died many years ago)

 

[Luddite]

Here's how I match metallic acrylic paints. I start with a suitable metallic which I can tint to the correct colour.

Then I add appropiately small amounts of good quality artists acrylic colour to get the right match, but here's the secret,

The pigments used in some colours are transparent, some are opaque. Adding a transparent colour to a metallic will not affect the brilliance of the finish, but even the smallest amount of an opaque colour will dull the brilliance.

So now you know how to get the colour and the brilliance to match the original. You'll need to do your research though. I keep two separate colour palettes of paints, one is all transarent colours the other all opaque colours.

Ahh,but you can FIX the transparent color,and intesify the metallic qualities,most of the time....1)let the paint bottle sit UNDISTURBED for a few days,it will separate into layers:Top,the clear acrylic emulsion,and the bottom layer,the pigments. 2) pour off most of the clear layer.It will not affect the paint in any way,other than intensity.You will lose a good deal of overall volume,but the resulting paint will be very true metallic. 3) Use CRAFT acrylics...My best ones? Decoart and ceramcoat,others are pretty good as well,incl. one marketed by HL. I don`t like the "artist colors at all,no really great metallics,least IMHO.Decoart Asphaltum is a great transparent earth brown that makes a killer antique coat,even over leafed surfaces!Both examples here were done entirely in Acrylic craft paint,over an Acrylic basecoat:Red for the feathers,and burgandy for the Dragons. Both were topcoated in acrylic clearcoat(Minwax Polycrylic),allowed to dry, then the high spots were hit with some brilliant gold gilt paste and buffed.Do NOT clearcoat the paste,it kills the effect.PS,you can get some drop dead gorgeous verdi effects too. L

 

[Not your average framer]

I don`t like the "artist colors at all,no really great metallics,least IMHO.

Very true! I use the artist colours for tinting the metallic paints, but in the UK we have Everest framing paints which are produced by Pete Bingham and the metallics I use are from this range. They contain real metallics powders in an acrylic base and can be burnished when dry.

The range includes an amazing silver metallic which contains incredibly finely ground real coin silver, and looks like real leaf after burnishing. For those in the UK who don't know about this silver paint it's currently only available directly from Pete himself and costs about three times the price of the other metallics, but it's well worth it!

 

[Luddite]

Very true! I use the artist colours for tinting the metallic paints, but in the UK we have Everest framing paints which are produced by Pete Bingham and the metallics I use are from this range. They contain real metallics powders in an acrylic base and can be burnished when dry.

The range includes an amazing silver metallic which contains incredibly finely ground real coin silver, and looks like real leaf after burnishing. For those in the UK who don't know about this silver paint it's currently only available directly from Pete himself and costs about three times the price of the other metallics, but it's well worth it!

So any way I can get a hold of them here,in the USA? L.

 

[Shayla]

I second Framer Dave's advice to practice on scrap first.

A company will usually send out a four inch chip of
the moulding free upon request, and that size is good for
practicing such fix-ups on. You might already know this,
but be sure when ordering one to say 'chip' and
not 'sample'. The former will be sent out right away from
current stock, while the latter can take weeks to
arrive.
These tips everyone has given are great.

 

[Not your average framer]

So any way I can get a hold of them here,in the USA? L.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect not. They are available in the UK from Lion Picture Framing Supplies, I don't know if they ship to the USA.

Here's their web address.

www.lionpic.co.uk/

I hope this helps.

 

[Emibub]

Wow, Luddite and NYAF for the tips. I recently took a class on altering finishes with different products and it was illuminating. I'll add your tips to the list. Especially the part about draining the clear stuff off of the metallics.