(Image Courtesy of Pixabay M4rcel01966)
Sometimes damage, poor quality framing materials or even changes in interior trends and personal tastes can result in wanting to make changes to your current framed art. Luckily frames can be improved in various ways to give them a new lease of life.
Glazing – cleaning – replacement of broken glass– upgrade -safety
Cleaning. The glazing may become dirty over time with dust, mould and thunder bugs. Opening up the frame and giving the glazing a good clean up on both sides will make a hugh difference.
Broken glass can be replaced. TIP – most frames I see that have the broken glass are because the hanging cord/wire and fixings in the back of the frame have failed or the nail/screw in the wall has come loose – check yours on a regular basis for wear and tear.
Upgrade current standard glazing if there are concerns over colour fading or bad reflections. There are now specialist glazing’s that filter damaging UV light and hugely reduce reflections.
Safety concerns - Current glass can be replaced with acrylic glazing if safety becomes an important factor.
Mount – replacement - supplement
Replacement. This can be needed because of damage from mould, fading from light, tearing from broken glass, use of poor quality acidic mount board damaging the artwork or just because your colour preference has changed. It’s a simple way of freshening up the frame.
Supplement. Works with very fragile loose pigments such as pastels will benefit from a mount behind the top mount to act a tray for particles to fall in to instead of onto the mount which will be visible. If the current mount needs to be kept but is causing acidic damage to the artwork a buffering mountboard can be put under it to protect the artwork.
Frame Repairs – damaged moulding – loose/broken corners – touching up compo – colour change by painting
I can do minor repairs and touching up of frames such as re-joining mitre corners, filling dents/chips, replacing compo on ornate frames and colour matching worn of patches.
Caveat – frame repair success very much depends on the type and age of the moulding and level of work needed. Please be aware I do not offer the level of picture framing restoration or gilding an professional picture conservator does, I will refer you to one if its needed.
Please get in touch if I can help you at all.