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There are different types of decorated picture frames. These include hand-carved solid wood ornaments, handmade composition ornaments applied to a pre-joined frame, machine-made composition frames and mechanically embossed wood ornaments.
Frames have been made of solid wood for several thousand years. There are examples from ancient Egypt and there has been a solid connection between the Roman Catholic Church and ornately framed religious artworks for at least 1000 years. The Egyptians discovered methods of applying gold leaf to wood by attaching a stem made of Armenian clay. The clay provided a smooth base onto which the gold leaf could be applied, and the red color of the tree trunk gave a rich sheen to the thin layer of gold applied on top. Modern gilding today still uses identical methods to attach gold leaf to wood.
In the early European examples, the ornaments were carved to match the architecture of the day. The frames were often designed by the artist in consultation with the artisanal framer. In many examples, the frame was made before the artwork was painted. The panels and canvases the artist prepared used similar materials such as animal glues combined with calcium carbonate or chalk to create a solid surface on which to begin painting.
The carved frames were often primed with the same mixture of rabbit skin glue, water, dead plaster and chalk. The gesso mixture was applied warm from a water bath and built up in several layers. The final layers before gilding were done with a tree trunk mix, often covering the lowlights with an ocher yellow tone and the highlights tinted reddish. The shade of yellow provided a mask where the hollow portion of the ornament can remain ungilded. It was difficult to get the gold leaf into each indentation, so the shade of yellow helped hide the missing leaf.
Framers wanted to make ornate frames faster and also wanted to replicate a specific design to save time from the tedious task of carving, so they developed a mixture called “Compo”. The so-called composition was a secret recipe consisting essentially of stone resin or rosin melted with crude linseed oil. This melted resin mixture was then combined with hot rabbit skin glue and mixed rapidly to emulsify the oil and water mixture. When mixing the components, a filler in the form of powdered chalk or chalk was added to give body to the material.
The composition could be made in a large batch and stored as a brick, to be later heated and reactivated into a pliable molding compound.
Ornaments could then be carved once and then copied either by making the carving as a negative mold or by copying the ornament using melted shellac or melted resin by forcing the hot mass into the mold and then applying the flexible ornament to the frame in front of it cooled and hardened.
Even today, many frame replicas are made using the composition process.
Modern use of silicone has allowed easy replication of carved ornaments, although there are several practitioners of the ancient methods using traditional materials.
A common example is the intricately curved frame, where an ornament is applied to a wooden base and then gilded. In this case, the gilding is usually done with impact metal or Dutch leaf metal. A gold imitation made from a mixture of copper and nickel. The leaf metal is applied using an oil gilding method in which a slow drying varnish is applied to the prepared frame and then after a set time, just before the varnish has completely dried, the leaf is applied to the surface. If the leaf is applied too soon, the finish will be matte and lifeless, but if the timing is right, a lustrous gold finish is achieved. This type of gilding must be protected with layers of shellac and is often varnished to prevent tarnishing.
Most commercial gold frames are made from artificial gold leaf, such as leaf metal, due to the low cost of materials and the quicker application of finish and preparation of the underlying wood.
Modern ornate gold frames, which can be bought in lengths, are usually made by a mechanical compo machine. The machine consists of a feeding system where a wooden profile is pulled through the machine, passing under a large embossing wheel on which the pattern is engraved. A modern mix of synthetic compounds or wooden poles, similar to a wet MDF mix, is pumped onto the frame just before it passes under the embossing wheel. The wheel stamps the pattern into the mix as the wood moves through the machine.
The profiles are then dried and can be finished in a number of ways, from varnishing, gilding or plastic foiling with a hot stamping foil machine. The foils are available in a wide range of finishes imitating all types of surfaces.
The other common method of making ready-made ornamental wood frames is to use a mechanical embossing machine. The embossing machine is similar to the composition machine, but instead of applying a layer of compo to the frame, the wheel with the pattern on it is heated by a soldering torch assembly. The wheel is gradually heated by turning it through the gas flame until it is hot enough to scorch the wood. Then the pattern is embossed into the wooden frame strip under heat and pressure. Usually this type of frame is then stained to a dark color to hide the odd burn marks.
Various molding techniques are constantly being developed for the modern replication of ornate picture frames. These methods usually involve mass producing a specific design just to hit a certain price point that is acceptable to the market. They are not typically used to create unique handcrafted frames for individual artworks.
It is worth understanding the ancient methods and realizing that the techniques developed over the centuries hold great value. A modern picture frame can last a century, but that is often unlikely, while antique traditionally made frames have lasted a millennium.
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