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AndyPan CPF

AndyPan CPF

MGF, Master Grumble Framer
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Joined
Jun 29, 2002
Posts
619
Loc
Lincoln, RI
Business
Get The Picture
I keep getting told I should be saving this for a PPFA Open Competition, but I am not known for my patience, and I really wanted to show this off. I am really pleased with how it came out.

There's a little bit of a story to the piece, though. When Mike and I took vacation in Europe last September, one of our ports of call was in Egypt. We'd booked a 2-day tour of several sites in Cairo, including the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx. Our second day of the tour, we traveled to Saqqara to see the Stepped Pyramid of Dzozer and its accompanying temple complex. The temple complex is pretty much a wide open courtyard, with walls surrounding it that still bear some incredible carved details. In the middle of the courtyard, we found a small chunk of what looks to be red granite with some markings on the surface. As we walked aorund the rest of the complex, we kinda forgot we had it, so it left with us. :icon19:

Back at the hotel, we washed up the rock, and it turns out the "hieroglyphs" are pretty much nothing by erosion patterns from wind blown sand. Still, thought it was pretty cool, and would make a cool story when we got home. I knew I was going to frame it with a picture of the Stepped Pyramid, but I wanted the finished frame to be really unique and fun. Using some scraps of a couple of Nurre profiles I had kicking around the shop, I made the frame over several days, using a variety of materials, paints, and finishes. The matting got a similar treatment.

Anyway, here's the resulting piece. I still need to fit it with some museum glass, but want to make sure the paint is completely cured before I pop it into the frame. Hope you like it.

pyramid3_web.jpg

These next two are just some detail shots, one of the side of the frame, and a closeup of the Eye of Horus design.

pyramid1_web.jpg pyramid2_web.jpg
 
VERY COOL, Andy!!!

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
I THINK I just fell in LOVE with a framing piece!!!!

AWESOME BABE!!!
 
King Tut (King Tut)
Now when he was a young man,
He never thought he'd see
People stand in line to see the boy king.

(King Tut) How'd you get so funky?
(funky Tut) Did you do the monkey?
Born in Arizona,
Moved to Babylonia (king Tut).

(king Tut) Now, if I'd known
they'd line up just to see him,
I'd trade in all my money
And bought me a museum. (king Tut)

Buried with a donkey (funky Tut)
He's my favorite honkey!
Born in Arizona,
Moved to Babylonia (king Tut)

Dancin' by the Nile, (Disco Tut)
The ladies love his style, (boss Tut)
Rockin' for a mile (rockin' Tut)
He ate a crocodile.

He gave his life for tourism.
Golden idol!
He's an Egyptian
They're sellin' you.

Now, when I die,
now don't think I'm a nut,
don't want no fancy funeral,
Just one like ole king Tut. (king Tut)

He coulda won a Grammy,
Buried in his Jammies,
Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia,
He was born in Arizona, got a condo made of stone-a,
King Tut!
:p:p:p

Awesome job Andy!
 
Actually, Ylva, I did. Don't know why, because I don't often take a step-by-step record of a project like this, since usually when I'm done, I never want to attempt it again. But I was telling some friends on FaceBook about the project, so have badgered them with the process every step of the way.

The frame size is 11x11 inside the rabet. I cut some scraps of NC91201 Cosmopolitan gold to size and built it. I then cut NC61502 Chantilly silver so that the back edge of the first frame sits right on the top of the sloped edge of the second frame. Then both frames were attached with glue and offsets to make one frame. No pics of that, since it's pretty cut and dry (pun intended).

Once the frames were together, I needed to make the brick design. I tried a couple of different things, like trying to cut v-grooves by hand, or making bricks on the Wizard. Making a ton of little bricks on the wizard I think would have taken forever, so I opted to go a quicker route. I cut 1/4" strips of a slightly textured rag matboard (think it was a Crescent with a stone-like texture), then cut those strips into 1/2" bricks with an old paper cutter. The bricks were then glued one by one to the frames, as pictured below:

step01.jpg

Once all the "bricks" were glued in place, I sealed them with Modpodge to make sure they were good and attached to the frame, and make sure that the matboard would be able to take the following steps. I think I used maybe 3 or four coats of the Modpodge, and really tried to fill in some of the major gaps. Picture below:

step02.jpg

Once the sealing coat was dry, I was ready to add the texture. I picked up a can of Krylon's Make it Stone spray paint from the craft store, and coated the entire frame with a couple of coats, letting it dry about an hour between the coats.

step03a.jpgstep03b.jpg

After letting the spray paint dry a few hours (should have gone overnight, but remember what I said about not being patient?), I painted over the textured paint with a yellow acrylic paint. The color is called Camel, but it's really more of a dark butter color. Now it was really starting to look "right."

step04.jpg
 
Continued:

Now that was completed on Saturday afternoon, so I was anxious to get back to it on Monday. Monday morning I came in, and mixed up a stain of burnt umber acrylic thinned with water. I brushed the stain over the entire frame surface, letting the dark paint settle into the pits and crevices between the bricks to define and "age" them. Think I did about three coats of the stain, dabbing lightly with a paper towel, until I got the depth of color I was looking for.

One coat of stain: step05a.jpg and with final coat of stain: step05b.jpg

After that, it was just cosmetic touches. To highlight the raised parts of the texture, I used the same base color yellow paint, and just did a light dry brush to make those parts stand out. Once that was completely dry, the frame was sealed with a couple coats of Krylon matte spray.

step06.jpg

The mat was done pretty much the same way, just without making bricks. I knew I wanted the mat to more or less blend in with the un-bricked panel on the face of the frame, but still wanted something to make it stand out. So I cut the Eye of Horus designs with the Wizard's cut art, and glued those to the face of an 8-ply rag mat. Then the mat was sealed with Modpodge, textured with the spray paint, and stained. Voila!

Mat, pre-staining:step07.jpg
 
Yeah Andy, you should have saved it for the OPEN competition!

One blue ribbon thrown away <sigh>
 
Simply stunning, Andy! Thanks for the step-by-step instructions too.
 
Being new to this business I never realized the creativity that this profession can be. Thanks for sharing such a marvelous piece and the process in making it happen.
 
Nice job Andy. What a great reminder from your trip.
 
I don't use this word very often, but that is freakin' AWESOME.
Even if you missed a chance at competition (solely because of non-anonymity), at least you could make a great article for PFM out of it.
:thumbsup: Rick
 
Bee-yoo-tee-ful Andy! You absolutely should have saved it for competition. Coulda gone all the way................................why didn't Mike stop you? I agree about doing it as an article. Wouldn't that look great on the cover?
 
Aww, thanks guys! Glad you all liked it. It's not exactly archival, though, so I don't think it would have fared well in even an open competition. Even though the competitions do take note of some funky framing and creative mat designs, ultimately it still needs to be of a certain level of conservation, and this piece just ain't got it. Photo is just regular ol' drymounted, and the rock is mounted with silicone. But then again, I really didn't do the piece with competitions in mind, but rather as a cool way to display a unique souvenir from our trip. I'm still trying to think of a place at home I can hang it. Have a lot of Egyptian stuff hanging already, so wall space is at a premium right now. :D

I am considering possibly doing a similar treatment for a photo I took in Pompeii that might end up going in our Tuscan themed bathroom. Be a while before I can get around to that one, though, as business has picked up considerably in the last couple weeks. When I get that one done, will show that off, too.

Again, thanks for all the comments.
 
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