Alejandro by Diane Eugster. Ebonized Oak frame with Clavos

Here’s a picture of the completed frame I blogged about recently.  One of the things I really enjoy about WordPress is not only can is it a way to share my work but it also opens up conversation from like minded folks — great way to counteract the isolation that seems to be part of all artistic endeavors.  It was fun having so many comments about the ebonizing process, thanks for all the comments and questions and hope many of you decided to try it yourself.  Really pleased with the final project, notice how the grain follows the miters; especially on the top corners.

Lets talk about the clavos, knowing I wanted something special my first place to search was Etsy. There was an interesting store  called Sons Leather so placed my order.  I should have read more carefully but only noticed that “orders ready to ship in in 5-9 days”.  Great I thought, plenty of time to get them installed and ready.  Whoops — they’re located in Jordan so shipping was actually 3-4 weeks but thank goodness they came in time and are perfect and well priced.  They specialize in leather and decorative upholstery nails and answered my emails quickly which is a good thing with internet sales.

Spacing for them is 3/4″ on center seemed to work out and was easily accomplished using graph paper.  Setting a fence on the drill press insured that they were aligned and pre-drilling made the installation easier.  To protect the finish on the clavos I attached a cabinet door bumper to the tack hammer.  They were inserted into the pre-drilled hole with hand pressure then eye-balled to 45° and hammered into the frame.

Clavos from Jordan

Pre-drilling holes

Installation in frame

Before installing the painting I rubbed on a very light coat of the OSMO Polyx oil which had an additional benefit of removing just the slightest bit of the finish on the clavos, exposing the copper or brass metal of the clavo for an additional bit of patina!  All in all, very pleased with the outcome.  The painting size is 12″ x 16″ and it’s oil on panel.  The molding is 4″ wide.