You could be forgiven for thinking we’re getting a bit out of our comfort zone with the heading for today’s blog. Be of good heart! We have no intention of layering malodorous Knights of the Road in any shape or form – these are two different terms for unusual types of frames.
In the main when we frame things for customers, we take lovely long lengths of pre-made mouldings, crunch them in the Morso (very satisfying noise it makes, too); assemble them with the aid of the underpinner (if it’s in a good mood); cut glass, mount board and backs…and then lovingly assemble your artwork, finishing with some deft application of high quality sticky tape and fixings so you can hang your picture easily. A final flourish is our little label which we affix to the bottom right hand corner of the back (with great care – ensuring it is aligned beautifully) so that if you decide you want a similar frame at some future date, we can look up what we did and reproduce it to perfection… Recently, though, we have been refurbishing a customer’s vintage frames, some very excitingly known as a ‘Tramp art frames‘.
This is an example of an unusual ‘tramp’ frame…
Personally, I think it’s a misnomer, because the really beautiful examples of these in the workshop, prove the word ‘tramp’ doesn’t do them justice at all. They may be frames cannibalised from other wooden items, but they have been lovingly embellished and really deserve a better moniker. They arrive in all shapes and sizes (and conditions) and they are a wonderful addition to one’s framing options. I’d think of them more as ‘repurposed’, but even that doesn’t do them the credit they deserve.
… and one of the many stacked frames for MinaLima!
Equally, ‘stacked’ frames can be as ornate or as simple as the customer wants. Antique stacked frames are a regular feature of the work we do with MinaLima, as they march in glorious step with the Harry Potter contents we put in them for various exhibitions. We can, and do, make stacked frames for customers quite regularly, but even we enjoy getting in a fabulous example like this one, with inlay and texture and all-round fabulousness. We might not have made this one in the workshop, but we revel in helping it do what a good frame should: exhibiting the artwork to its best advantage.
Tilly