Framed!

I have said it before....The gluing jig is my best tool, after my exacto.

I was not getting any happier with the macramé. I kept going and I kept saying to myself, "I don't care if it was a 70s thing...It doesn't work here.  Then I finally threw it across the room and started framing.

I got two framed and in the jig.

Then I went to work painting the chimney and putting the first coat of spackle on the inner walls of the fireplace.

So much for that.

 By the time I got back to the bedroom, the pictures were out of the jig and being tried out in the room.

The Terrible Two can sometimes be the Terrific Two.  Then found the right places for both of the ones that I framed...And tried them out.

Tessie insisted that this lighting was just right for atmosphere....I told her it was just right for "dark".  I think that this one should go a little to the right, but other than that, since I cut it down in size, it looks pretty good there.  So much for macramé...

Meanwhile, Zar got out the razor saw and Tessie held down the miter box and they framed this one as an extra.  I am going to have to find a place for it...

Zar hinted that it would look good in the Clockwork Cottage, if I ever get back to finishing it....Hint.  Hint.

Anyway, I got an E mail from Walter saying he will be back around five this afternoon... So much for minis...I think that I should make at least a path from the back door to his recliner before he gets here...

The first two days were fun. The third is for cleanup.

See you tomorrow.

Fast and Furious Framing....

If you are anything like me, sometimes you would like to have a framed piece of art to hang on the wall without the fuss of the miter box and saw, staining and gluing.

I woke up at 3:00AM with one of those harebrained ideas that come at that time of morning. This is what came of it.

I have 1/4" copper and lead tape and I think that you can now buy other metallic in the scrapbook section. For experimentation, I decided to use the copper. It is very easy to work with and I just cut it right from the roll as I went.

I have a bunch of microscope slides in different sizes. Some are actually medical from many years ago and others can now be purchased at Michaels in the scrap booking section.

For framing, I used the simplest methods and materials that I could find. I needed the slides, tape, some pictures and just for fun, I had some metallic strips of sticky die cuts.

I cut the cardboard and the picture to be framed, the exact size of the slide. Then, starting with two opposite ends, I wrapped lengths of the tape from the front(where I made sure that the edges were straight) around to the back. I trimmed the edges flush with the corner of the slide. I have one more edge to go on the one that Tessie is holding.

This is what the front looked like after I finished. The frames could be used just like this for a modern room, but I wanted something more traditional.

I purchased some strips of metallics at the last mini show that I attended and now I have finally found a use for them.

In the last photo, I simply laid the trims on top of the copper tape and found that they made a very convincing ornate frame.

The photo doesn't do them justice. The glass dulls the colors in the pictures. They are much brighter in real life.

So....The next time you want a fast(about 10 minutes) frame that looks pretty good, go for the tape.

I imagine that, with a little experimentation, other tapes could be used to the same end. I know that there is chrome tape available. Check out the nearest hardware store for that and other kinds to use.

I am going back and experiment some more now.

See you tomorrow.

I Was Framed!

Or maybe we should call this particular entry "Picture Framing 101". I have heard people complain about the difficulty of picture framing. I am going to attempt to make it at least somewhat easier.

A few months ago, my friend Val from England sent me this beautiful little watercolor that she painted. It is of a Scottish beach.

Somehow I don't put Scotland and beaches together, but I guess that it is logical that they do have some. I think of Scotland as all cliffs and craggy mountains.

Anyway, she painted this for me of a beach scene. It special because Walter went there on a business trip a couple of years ago and loved it.

I am ashamed that I hadn't framed it sooner and hung it somewhere. I decided that it would look great in the living room of the Clockwork Cottage, over the new bachelor's chest that Tessie rejected.

Whilst framing it, I thought that you could come along for the ride.

In the first photo, you can see that I have marked off with a T-square the area that I want to use. I decided not to mat it because the painting itself measures 2 3/4 X 2 inches.

I selected regular miniature picture framing stock. You can tell it from other molding because it is routed on both sides. The front is fancy and the back has just a recess on one edge.

When I first started out, I had a terrible time understanding why, when I cut my miters, my frames kept coming out too large. It was because the true corner should be marked atop the edge of the recess and not on the edge of the inner frame. In this photo you can see that I have penciled a mark on the recess where I want the corner of the picture to lay.

I do the same thing on both ends of all four pieces, making sure that the opposites match in length. On this photo you can see that the watercolor is laying on the lip with the corner exactly at the edge of the back piece. In other words, the piece you see continues under the watercolor by about 1/16".

After I finished cutting the pieces, I did the usual stain, dry, glue and put in the jig routine. I let that dry and then I set the watercolor in the recess behind the frame.

As soon as I had it finished, Tessie showed up and tried to claim it for Spiderwort Manor. Darn! I thought she had forgotten about that. No such luck!

After a small struggle, she let go and made me promise to go back to work on the tea shop. She seems to think that I should do at least as much work on her projects as I do on Zar's and do hers first!

She announced "Anytime you want to quit on the tea shop and work on Spiderwort Manor, you can. You just can't keep sneaking off to work on Clockwork Cottage!"

"Wanna bet?"( I said that to myself, very quietly.) She can't stay awake 24 hours a day. When she sleeps, my time is my own!

I wonder if she has any of that sleeping draught left over from the time she put Zar to sleep for three days...... I am going to go look now.

See you tomorrow.