Another frame and another challenge, this time it was carving peas into a bead on the outer edge of the profile. I did a small sample piece and held it by this painting — liked the results so decided to jump in and commit to an 18″ by 24″ frame! On the sample the sight edge was also gilded but as the work progressed I decided to paint that black instead to completely isolate the subject from the rest of the world, a definite barrier from the frame.

During my research I found a few different ways other’s have gone through to carve them. Chris Pye had an article showing his method and Tim Holton had a blog showing his technique. Chris Pye begins by using a router to create a bead but my preference is my small plow plane with a 1/4″ cutter. No dust and quiet and not really that long of a process. The layout is done using two calipers, this process takes some fiddling around to achieve equal spacing all around the frame. I tape a piece of masking tape to the bench and lay out the outside length of each side plus the center line. I arbitrarily decided on 6 peas in a segment and an approximate distance between each of the segments. The goal was to end up with approximately the same distance at the ends of both sides. Once satisfied, one caliper is set for that distance and the center of each segment in marked on the bead. I set the other caliper for 6mm which is the size of the #8 gouge used. Three marks from the center each way gave me 6 peas. As it turned out there are 9 segments on the 24″ leg and 7 on the 18″ leg. This slide show shows the basic procedure. Tim Holton used a v-chisel for separations between the beads but he used Oak rather than the softer basswood on my frame. The advantage is that the V gives you some clearance when making the first pass with the gouge — I only popped out one of the beads at the start because I tried to go vertical with the gouge too soon, thankfully it glued back in. By taking shallow cuts at the start and using a brush to clear out the waste the process went smoothly — about 4 hours of time needed for the entire frame.

I made it a point to not obsess about the shapes of the peas, trying to get them all “perfect”. Once I completed a set of six I told myself it is what it is — by the time all 192 are carved and the burnisher sealer is applied, the gold leaf is laid, and the toning is completed it will look fine!

The finishing process began with a coat of Zinsser wax free shellac on all surfaces. This was followed by a coat of Red Burnisher/Sealer from LA Gold Leaf. The primer was then burnished with 4/0 oil free steel wool (Liberon) and the panel was taped off so I could paint the sight edge black with Rosco Japan Drop Black. I realize I gave a bunch of links here for products that I use, obviously that’s all personal preference but if you’re unfamiliar with them thought I’d add the information. The wax free shellac and steel wool are critical in my opinion. As much time as it takes to create frames you don’t want to have a failure in the finishing step.

Next step is the gilding process. My preference is to use slow set, oil based size. The weather hasn’t been very warm but the frame was sized around 7:00 pm then covered to prevent too much dust. I began laying the leaf around 8:30 am and it worked well. The picture on the left shows the frame after knocking down the bright shine of metal leaf with 4/0, oil free, steel wool from Liberon. Only the top and right side are done in the picture. After allowing 2 days for the size to dry completely I air brushed on 2 coats of platinum shellac; it is wax free. The final step is toning, for this Titanium White casein, mixed with distilled water and a drop of alcohol was used. Brush on, then dry brush to achieve the look I was after — always a bit of an unknown! Iced Gold is what I call this and once the casein is thoroughly dry (24+ hours), I’ll protect it with a thin coat of Liberon Black Bison wax.

So that’s the process, I hope this helps anyone else on this process of making custom picture frames. It’s a process I’ve been on for over 15+ years. It’s been my goal to share what I’ve learned along the way with others on this journey.