Fixing/altering at DYI gifted piece of art for a customer

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westman 2

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brandon,manitoba
Looking for advise and suggestions regarding a customers gifted DYI art. Customer wants to change out one material/visual aspect and ideally keeping the rest the same.

Frame looks like it was a garage sale find, repainted and is oversized. Painted cardboard from a TV box was used as visual white space and used to mount a large (loosely) stretched printed canvas. It appears that the cardboard is glued into the frame with yellow carpenters glue and the canvas is glued to the cardboard with the same glue. The piece the customer wants to swap out is the cardboard. The corrugated look is driving her insane.

How best to deal with the glue both between the frame & cardboard and the cardboard & canvas? What is the best way to minimize any damage to the frame or canvas?

Once apart the plan is to determine if the canvas has been stretched properly and potentially redo it, replace the cardboard with a white matboard with foam board support behind, and secure the canvas using a combination of screws and fender washers. Happy to hear any alternative suggestions.

Thank-you in advance

Sincerely,

Xisra Winder for
George Strange's Prairie Showcase

P.S. I would attach a picture, but I know I spent the first 5 minutes laughing when I first saw it so...
 
In general if a customer wants us to reframe are that has an attached mat, we will carefully destroy the mat, by pulling away from the art. Usually starting in the corners.
The same applies if the customer wants us to reuse the mat, and dispose of the art...destroy art by carefully pealing it away from the mat.
In your case you are looking to save the frame and art, but not the "matting" in between.
It is likely that you can get the majority of the cardboard off of the frame without much effort, by just pushing it toward the back of the frame. Then carefully shred the cardboard off of the art.
There will likely be some glue and cardboard residue on the canvas and the frame. I would leave the canvas alone, or talk to a conservator. As to the frame, you can scrape the inside of the frame rabbet with a blade.
 
Hey, let us have a giggle too!!!! :)

I am not sure how to visualize this. Canvas is glued to cardboard and that whole package is glued into the frame?

Getting it out of the frame might be as easy as running a blade close to the glue and breaking it like that

Getting the canvas off the cardboard might be a lot trickier. I am not sure what part of the cardboard is showing? Could you cut a mat to cover that?

So a photo would actually help. And, as stated, we can use a giggle!
 
Yeah, I need to see a photo too. As described, this is a job I would beg off of.
You have to consider the value of your time, and the potential risk vs. the potential return. Especially when you aren't selling any materials to speak of...
and dealing with a DIY creation. :CRAZED:
:cool: Rick
 
Maybe DYI means "Do Yourself In".
Confused Robert Downey Jr GIF
 
Ylva said:
Hey, let us have a giggle too!!!! :)

I am not sure how to visualize this. Canvas is glued to cardboard and that whole package is glued into the frame?

Getting it out of the frame might be as easy as running a blade close to the glue and breaking it like that

Getting the canvas off the cardboard might be a lot trickier. I am not sure what part of the cardboard is showing? Could you cut a mat to cover that?

So a photo would actually help. And, as stated, we can use a giggle!
Click to expand...
 

Attachments

  • DYI X-mas gift.webp
    DYI X-mas gift.webp
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alacrity8 said:
In general if a customer wants us to reframe are that has an attached mat, we will carefully destroy the mat, by pulling away from the art. Usually starting in the corners.
The same applies if the customer wants us to reuse the mat, and dispose of the art...destroy art by carefully pealing it away from the mat.
In your case you are looking to save the frame and art, but not the "matting" in between.
It is likely that you can get the majority of the cardboard off of the frame without much effort, by just pushing it toward the back of the frame. Then carefully shred the cardboard off of the art.
There will likely be some glue and cardboard residue on the canvas and the frame. I would leave the canvas alone, or talk to a conservator. As to the frame, you can scrape the inside of the frame rabbet with a blade.
Click to expand...
This was my thought process too. However, there was liberal usage of glue, an impressive amount. Sigh.
 
I hope you charge a lot by the hour.
Removing the image from the backing, or at least enough of it so it can't be seen should be relatively easy using a sharp utility knife. Shaving the cardboard down so only the face paper is attached to the back of the image.
Getting the backing out of the frame looks like a couple hours of scraping dried glue out of the rabbet.
 
I would give her a quote, charged by hour and no guarantees.

You could cut the image and then glue that onto a new backing. It would just be raised a bit more. The bigger problem seems to be getting it out of the frame without breaking the frame.

Quite a few hours of labor. At that point, I would recommend a new frame and new backing which would probably be lower in price than charging for a few hours of labor.
 
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