Frame Restoration
Frame restoration is the type of work what really fascinates me the most. Let us say you buy a beautiful ornate frame from an auction that just fits perfectly to a piece of artwork that you have. The finish is still in great shape but some of the ornaments are either missing or damaged. Now some people would just have another frame made and throw out the original but as I mentioned before, the frame itself can be very high in monetary value or historical value. It is almost as if you breath fresh life back into the frame by restoring it.
I was very fortunate that a lady I had met gave me a collection of old frames. Her husband had take up the hobby of painting in oil and even started to restore some frames for the pieces he painted. Sadly to say he had died before completing a lot of his work. She knew the frames would be in good hands.
Here are some examples of restoration work using old handcraft techniques of restoration and finishing.
This frame had been in extremely bad shape. The ornaments were in fine shape but there were many surface cracks that had to be compensated. The finish consists of red shellac, gold bronzing, a very light green wash, the highlights then bronzed over and then as the last step a very light white latex wash.
Ornaments that are either damaged or missing can be repaired or replaced as you will see in the following pictures
What a difference !
The following is a representation of a complete frame restoration.
Seams of frame was renailed and filled
Frame painted with red shellac
Frame was painted with gold laquer, highlights rubbed through to expose red underneath
Light green color rubbed on highlights
Light black wash applied
Gold / Copper laquer applied to highlights
White wash applied.....finished ! This is not the best picture , have to reshoot it and update then
As you can see, there are so many different washes, colors that can be applied. If you want to completly add a new look or trying to get the original look back or just touching up spots that have been damaged. The sky is the limits
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