The Gift Blog

Its been yet another shockingly long time since I update this page. But so it is. I have been trying to think of something fascinating to fill in the blank Word page and equally as a follow up to my last word- dump.

So I have chosen this. A gift I have made for my friends.

I have the exciting honour of becoming a godmother for a beautiful little Norwegian girl called Frida soon, so I wanted to make a gift for my friends to celebrate their family. Therefore I chose a restored 18thC frame with a double aperture mount to show off their beautiful children. It’s a bit showy and bling but that’s the point.

Knowing that my friend was keen to have an antique frame from me- I started out to acquire an ornate frame sizable enough for a pair of portraits. And sizeable enough to make an impact on a plain Nordic wall space.

 I found this 18thC piece which was ideal and had the decorative look I was after. The frame was perfect in design for what I was looking for. And while the gold wand bad on it. it wasn’t bright and I felt it could certainly do with being brightened up.

The next question was- how gold do I want it to be? Well, how gold is too gold? Is there such as thing as too gold? Well you would be surprised as many shring away from what may seem an over expression and use of gold. For me. Gold is gold. It is applied as gold and then it ages. Naturally. In this case however we are framing children’s portraits. We are also aiming to make something appear ridiculously bling and fun. So there is still no such thing as too gold either. It’s a statement piece and that’s the point.

This was not a hard/ strict restoration. I didn’t go in with the intention of repairing every crack and space. Anyway there were very few. Rather the intention was to brighten it up and fill in the vital cracks. In order to do this I began by making a clay bole which I used to fill in and strengthen the cracks.

Since this was an 18thC Frame I chose to oil gild. Oil gilding also provides a brighter ‘gaudier’ finish. Not for everyone. It is also faster and more efficient eventually that the preferred watergilding. The gold can then be applied directly onto the tacky oil surface and the excess is brushed off once dried.

Applying the gold onto the oiled frame.

The gold is then protected with a layer of Shellac (natural varnish) and rotton stone is lightly rubbed into the corners and elevations of the frame to distress the finish slightly without loosing the brightness.

 Finally when choosing a mount and the images for this piece; I decided on this beautiful sage green. The children both have striking red hair which contrasts wonderfully with the green and equally reflects the warmth and richness of the gold.

Final product with sage green mount