Framing

With 5 new watercolours to frame  I'll be spending some time in the basement framing workshop this week. I usually take just a few paintings at a time before the job gets too big and overwhelming. I had intended to paint this series of watercolours all in the same size but it didn't turn out that way, so it will be individual measurements as usual. 

There's a lot of work involved in framing each painting. After the window in the archival cardboard is cut with a bevelled edge, the backing card is measured and cut. Then the lengths of wooden frame moulding are mitred in the guillotine. After that the frames are joined in the underpinner  (no ugly nails) and the glass is cut. Finally there's the meticulous work of mounting and assembling all the elements together with hopefully neither dust nor fingerprints. More often than not I have to open up again to remove a tiny hair or speck of dust that found itself sandwiched in between.

My old faithful Dexter mat cutter, simple but effective.

The Morsø mitring machine.
Note the long supporting channel goes
through a hole to the next room!

An underpinner shoots v-shaped nails into the back of the frame.