Framing
Art Hire have a massive range of frames to choose from, many their own design, conceived and tailored for specific client’s requirements. Each frame can then be hand finished in numerous different ways by skilled craftsmen to create a truly unique and bespoke frame.
With such a mindboggling array of different finishes to choose clients can rest assured that our vastly experience staff are on hand to help direct clients in their decisions.
Each style of frame tends to be suitable for particular mediums.
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BOX FRAMES: Badge image Ideal for floating prints where the deckled edge is showing and a small spacer separates the glass from the artwork. 3D works, sports tops, badges and medals can all be handled this way.
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SHADOW FRAMES: These are ideal for paintings on canvases where the edge of the canvas is to be showing.
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CHUNKY FRAMES: Ideal on canvases that are being framed close to with a slip.
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THIN FRAMES: Perfect for most mounted works.
finishes
This is one of Art Hire Framing’s areas of expertise. There are so many different combinations and textures it is impossible to list them all, but here are a few of the most popular.
Gesso : This is a specialist plaster formula that has been at the core of framing since the Italian Renaissance. It is applied in layers and then water polished to create a super smooth surface that can either be painted or have layers of a clay bole applied that can then be gilded.
Water Gilding : Art Hire are one of the few framers in Scotland that have the craftsmen to offer this highly skilled service. This is where we take the boled gesso frame and lay wafer thin sheets of either 23.5c gold, 13.6c white gold or moon gold leaf to the frame. The frame is then burnished with an agate stone to give a highly polished finish, then usually cut back to give a more distressed look.
Metal Leaf: Given the constant rise in the price of gold it is hardly surprising that this gold leaf substitute has become more popular in recent years. Properly applied it can be hard to tell the difference with un-burnished gold leaf.
Painted: This offers an endless range of coloured finished to tie in with any artwork. 2 coats of acrylic gesso are applied followed by 2 coats of our special paint mixture and then a coat of wax to give a tough finish. Darker waxes can be applied to tone down or distress the frame.
Gilded and Painted: Spectacular finishes can be achieved by combining leaf and paint especially when the gesso is textured.
Stained: Bare wood with a coat of stain and then waxed is one of the simplest and most effective forms of framing giving a lovely natural finish.
Waxed: Bare wood frames with a strong grain like ash and oak look stunning with just a natural or dark bees wax finish applied.
Pre- finished frames: Art Hire carry a small core range of these frames that your average “High Street” framer depend upon but have access to thousands more.
Distressed Gold Leaf
Specialist Frames
Gilded & Painted Frame
mountboards
There are few things that can ruin your artwork more than the long-term effects of your mountboard choice. We frequently come across artwork that has been irreparably damaged by poor quality and inappropriate mounting. This can be from acid in the mount board seeping out to discolour the bevel, or worse going on to damage the artwork. Works with no backing being exposed to the frames acidic hardboard creating foxing marks, to double sided tapes and masking tape holding works in place.
The most frustrating aspect of these dangerous, poor quality mounts is that an acid free conservation board is only a few pounds more and a small fraction of the overall frame cost, but offers so much more protection and value.
This is why Art Hire insists on using high quality acid free conservation mountboards. Mark Greer spent a great deal of time researching which mountboard would offer the best protection for the artworks being framed. In the end it was an easy choice as he felt the Neilsen Bainbridge “Artcare” range is proven to be pro-active in protecting artworks. No greater testimony to it’s qualities can be found than at the National Archive in Washington DC who are using this product to protect the Declaration of Independence!
It is also essential that nothing other than acid free conservation tape come into contact with the artwork.
glass
Art Hire have always taken full advantage of the advancements in modern technology, none more so than in the choice of glass that we offer. We use 3 main types of glass;
Standard 2mm picture framing glass that has been the industry standard for many years. It is suitable for framing almost all types of artwork.
Clear Colour Plus is a 2.5mm low reflective glass that is ideal for dark artworks that are hard to see due to reflections. This should not be confused with the poor quality defused glass that is used by many “high street” framers up and down the country. It is so clear that clients are often surprised to discover that there is glass at all.
Clear Colour Plus UV offers the same low reflective qualities but has a filter blocking out up to 98% of harmful ultra violet light that can cause delicate works like watercolours or works on paper to fade. This is often referred to as “Museum Glass”
