Long brass rubbing ...

CAframer

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
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Hoping someone has a creative idea...

I am framing several brass rubbings, most are straightforward framing applications, however the customer wants to handle the longest one (about 55" long by 15" wide) in a "unique" manner ... she wants to hang it as a banner rather than frame it normally ... she has talked about making dowels for the top and botttom to respectively provide a means for suspending it, and sufficient weight to make it hang straight. As I have pointed out to her this will still leave the thin paper brass rubbing exposed to light, dirt, damage, etc. I have obviously recommended framing to protect the artifact, which happens to be particularly important to her as it was made by her (now deceased) mother many years ago. I have also suggested that if she wants to dress it up with some dowels, cords, etc. we could put it in a shadowbox ... BUT she still wants ideas on how to hang it as a banner but without the risk of damage! Encapsulating it in Mylar would look awful, and beyond that I am out of ideas! Sooooo .... does anyone out there have a few bright ideas?????

Thanks in anticipation.
 
Welcome, You may or may not know one of our best known educators in the industry, Vivian Kistler.

Her comment to this would be "We are framers, not Magicians".

Customers think we can to anything. There are limits to all we do either in be in framing or whatever else we do. I would pass on the project.

Jerry
 
Amen, Jerry!

Framerguy
 
Rats!

I always thought the saying was, "We are framers, not musicians."

I like and respect Vivian, but I'm pretty sick of that saying.* I think we work magic every day.

At least it seems like magic to our customers.

I would agree that this project is beyond magic, though: protection without protection.

*The other ones I can live without hearing again are:

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  • The customer is always right.</font>
  • There are no dumb questions.</font>
 
So, this customer has a sentimentally precious, extremely fragile long piece of paper and wants to know how she can hang it on the wall without support or protection of any kind.

Yup! There definately are dumb questions.

I like the idea of a shadowbox but the piece will still need to be supported. The paper used for brass rubbings is very thin and tends to be kind of krinkly. Make sure that your customer understands that, even after the piece is framed, it still isn't going to be perfectly flat.

Perhaps I am cyniclly ascribing incorrect motives to your customer, but I find that usually when people ask for this sort of thing what they are really saying is "How can I hang this on the wall without paying for custom framing?"

Good luck.

Kit
 
She could always send it to a scroll mounter, and they can put backings, fabric surrounds and the hanging dowels on it. Not traditional,or the best protection, but it is an option...

The reason Asian hanging scrolls have a relatively long life, is that they are only hung for short periods of time. So it wouldn't necessairly be the kiss of death, as long as it was displayed wisely.

Rebecca
 
(I like and respect Vivian, but I'm pretty sick of that saying.* )

Come on Ron your just jealous because you did not say it first.
 
Brass Rubbings are a lovely enigma.

The long ones are often presented with dowels at each end and hung like scrolls. Any of them can be framed and glazed, of course, with spacers and no matting. The paper isn't all that fragile and they are often hung for years without any attention.

The unfortunate truth is, however, that there is no "market" for rubbings. They are plentiful. They can still be made in many of the churches and cemeteries, although a few have been restricted.

They are lovely to look at, but it takes much imagination to find monetary value in them. There are a ton of them around, both rubbed from the originals and those rubbed from castings after the orgininals were restricted from public rubbing.

We have a huge (more than 300 pieces) collection that has been presented to us by the original rubber and, frankly, I think it would be obscene to burden her with the actual cost of framing such a huge collection that has no place to go.

We will selectively frame and hang a few of the more recognizable pieces in our gallery, and perhaps we will be surprised. But so far, after much search and research, brass rubbings are of interest, mostly, to rubbers.

I'd love to be proved wrong on this, because the elderly couple who "rubbed" the brasses while serving in England, are worth caring about.

Doc'
Artisans Gallery
Fairfield Bay, Arkansas
 
It occurs to me that brass rubbings have much in common with cross stitch:

they can be well or poorly done depending on the skill of the perpetrator

while of no intrinsic artistic merit, they have great sentimental and decorative value

they only acquire historic and/or commercial value when they are several hundred years old

people who bring them to a frame shop expect and deserve the same care and attention we would give to anything else

Kit (chopsticks down)
 
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