Woodworks by John
CGF II, Certified Grumble Framer Level 2
The purpose of a frame is to isolate the artist's work into its own world and also to compliment the palette or theme of the painting. I recently completed 3 of these frames for my favorite artist who also happens to be my wife! The frame is a flat panel (3"wide) with a 1"x 2" cap, you can see in the pictures that the panel and cap are joined together with a tongue and rabbeted groove for strength. Both of these paintings have a very cool palette, black was too glaring and gold or silver leaf didn't seem to work either. In the past, I've tinted burnisher/sealer with Mixol tints and then used Japan black paint over that. The paint is then rubbed back to expose the base coat that hopefully matches the temperature of the painting. For this one I experimented by only using Dux Gray burnisher/sealer that had been tinted with Mixol #14 Oxyd. Why that color -- it's the closest I had and it achieved what I wanted it to! The outer edge and the inner side of the cap were then oil gilded with 12kt leaf, that was done with slow set size. The final step was to seal the entire frame and leaf with Liberon wax. If you're interested in the process of this frame including making of the profile you can check out my blog on it: https://woodworksbyjohn.com/2020/07/12/count-your-blessings/ Here are the images of the frame and paintings.