One of the challenges as a picture framer is being able to frame something you have never framed before. No matter how many years you have been working at the craft there is always something that will be brought in by a client that can have you scratching your head. Sometimes it can be pretty straight forward when the client is not concerned about conservation (and they have made the educated choice to proceed in this way) but when the item is a historical artifact that must be framed with full museum conservation techniques the game is changed. Recently a client came in, after seeing online the work we had done on the timber drone propeller, with an amazing antique artifact timber sculpture of Buddha. He requested it be boxed in a white frame with white matting as he was wanting to achieve a museum look. I explained to the client that white was not the best design for this piece as it would be too bright and take away from the piece. Modern white boxing would also not feel correct on an antique timber sculpture that has hundreds of years of patina. Instead we chose an off white beige mount (100 % cotton rag) and a stunning yet simple timber veneer box moulding by Bellini Fine Moulding. As the piece was very large and deep we also needed to create a box to extend the rebate of the moulding. This needed to be painting to match as close as possible to the main moulding. This was not the tricky part though.
The complicated part was how to mount this large heavy timber sculpture without causing any changes to its current state. (eg. Screws into back of the timber). Luckily the piece already had a few rusty nail hooks in it that we were able to use as anchors and then using heavy weight fishing line, we strategically "tied" the sculpture to the rag backing.
Once mounted the work was set back in the box behind Tru Vu Museum glass which not only has 99% UV filtration it also appears as if there is no glazing at all. We were very happy with the result as was our client. Mostly we are confident knowing that the piece can now be displayed pride of place and from a conservation standpoint we have done all we can to protect this piece of history.