In the Frame

I mentioned a while back that I was making a picture frame for my mixed media piece in my woodworking class but I never did get around to showing the finished product.

Clarence, my instructor, was very patient with me.  As I mentioned, I started with a 9" wide plank of pine lumber and ended up with my custom made 3" wide 8" x 10" frame.  I wanted to keep the profile very simple and chunky so we stayed with simple angles instead of using some of the curved router bits that Clarence used on his own frame. 

Making mitred corners is a very exacting process. You need to take the thickness of the blade itself into your measurement if you want to get a close fit.  With Clarence's help and a double dose of "measure twice, cut once" I was able to get a pretty good fit and sanding took care of most of my cutting imperfections.  Since I wanted to coat my frame with a gloss black paint, instead of staining it, that was a good thing.  I could have used a sandable wood filler if gaps in my corners had been noticeable.

I put three coats of gloss black acrylic paint on my frame.  I let the paint dry overnight between coats.  I let the frame dry for more than a week before putting the picture into the frame because I found that paint drops that appeared on the underedge of the picture side of the frame appeared to be tacky and I didn't want them to stick to the painting.  I tried to sand them off to the best of my ability but I also didn't want to disturb the paint that would appear wear the frame met the edge of the painting.  I wasn't putting glass or a mat in the frame so the frame would be touching the artwork itself.

Here is the finished result.

It feels good knowing I made the entire piece, frame and all.

Here is a closeup of one of the corners.

With the gloss black paint, it almost looks seamless.