Handmade Frames // Chocolate Finish

Yesterday was Chocolate day and we finished the first of these frames; half which are floating and half which are standard. A second coat of chalky flat black paint was applied by brush, giving the frames a deep thick black surface. Varying grades of steel wool are now rubbed across the black surface for two purposes: one is to further dull the black so it looks even deeper. The second is to rub away enough of the black so that the red undercoat shows through. We don’t really want to see red here. We really just want to give the black deep warmth and a red undertone. The degree of red which is brought through is determined by the art that will be placed in the frame, in order to compliment the oranges and browns of the Giclée art. These frames are coated with the same clear overcoat to project from dirt and scratching. They look fantastic. I’m really pleased with what’s been created in the frame shop. I’ve enclosed some pictures of the final frames. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to secure the customer’s permission to show the frames with the art that has been created for them. These pieces won’t be distributed at all. They’re site specific creations and the client hasn’t invited a public viewing.

Handmade Frames // Silver Finish

It’s been six days since my last report on the closed corner hand-made frames. This project of twenty-six frames will be made both standard and floating. For those not familiar with floating, floating means that the outside frame material does not come in direct contact with the image, thereby making the image appear to be unsupported or floating in the frame. The final finish will be broken down into two different types of finishes. A silver Borghese finish and a hand rubbed Chocolate finish. The previous selection and milling of wood, as well as the filling and sanding and preparation of a black matte base are common to all the frames we’re making in this project. For the Borghese, they brush on an adhesive, and hand apply the silver leaf, covering the entire frame. Particular attention has to be paid to be sure that no gaps occur; an1/8 inch overlap is necessary. Hand rubbing is done with cheesecloth, giving the silver a burnished appearance with the irregularities that denote hand processes. Now that the silver is well affixed to the wood, we need to bring out just the right amount of black undertone. Silver and black seem to compliment each other, in that black absorbs all light (that is reflects back no light) giving us the absence of color – which is black. On the other hand, silver reflects all light, capturing or filtering none of it; thereby giving us back the full spectrum of light, such as a mirror does, which we call silver. These two extreme treatments of light dance with each other to the tune created by the craftsman’s hand. The craftsman uses different grades of steel wool, with varying amounts of pressure and different grades of cloth, in order to be able to bring out the appropriate balance between the overcoat of silver and the undercoat of black. Now that we have it just where we want it, we tack rag the entire piece – remove any dust – and take it into the spray booth. A clear protective solvent sealer is spray applied one thin mist at a time until the buildup creates a scratch and dirt resistant surface. I really love it and cannot wait to put the art in; hopefully day after tomorrow.

The Giclee Printer and "handmade" frames

The roll of a Giclée printer seems to be expanding. Giclée printing began somewhere in the late 80’s, well before the name Giclée was introduced. This unique printing process has the sole objective of helping artists, galleries and art publishers, supporting a myriad of printing facilities. The evolution has been through a number of printing technologies, starting with the IRIS and most recently coming to UV Curable flatbed inkjet technologies. The Giclée print houses have adapted to their individual markets with different processes and technologies, such as in-house scanning, automated coating, hand stretching and framing.


At Harvest Productions we’ve added yet another service. Last week we began our first “hand made – closed corner” framing project. We’ve been encouraged to develop this by two customers for some years, and only recently had the good fortune of hiring two experienced craftsmen. For those who aren’t familiar with the terminology “closed corners” this type of framing is best described by me as “old world craftsmanship”. Surely when framing began to surround original art pieces, each frame was made specifically for that piece of art. That is to say that the frame was built, joined and then finished to reflect the needs of the individual piece of art. Today that’s not practical for the vast majority of framing needs. There simply couldn’t be enough people, enough shops, or enough sanders time to be able to manufacture all the frames that the world requires on daily basis. But for the lucky few who have an art piece which deserves the quality of a “closed corner - handmade frame”, it’s truly a source of satisfaction. We haven’t figured out how or if this will be a profitable process at Harvest, but we feel fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in respecting Giclée as an art form. That is to say, Giclée has to be pretty valuable to deserve this much attention in framing. Our progress so far on the frames we’re working on, is that we have had milled 500 feet of bass wood (that’s Brazilian pine like hardwood). This material was post sanded and inspected to be free of flaws. We have joined this material in to ten rectangles to the exact size requirements of the one of a kind Giclées that are being manufactured as I write this. These unusual frame profiles would not fit into the chopping or joining machine, consequently they had to be hand cut and hand joined. The second step is to seal all cracks nail holes and any variations with automobile bondo-like filler and then sand, sand, sand. Thirdly, the soon-to-be frames were hand rubbed with a custom color mixed solvent paint. This gives the framing material a dull patina that is only achieved from hand rubbing. So far, the pieces look like they have great potential. Perhaps in the end, their final finish will compliment the Giclées in a way that demonstrates their value. Of course, we have no way of knowing until it’s done. I’ll keep you informed as we progress on these frames.

Who would have thought that a Giclée printer could ever need to make hand made frames?

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