As an internationally recognized award winning picture framer with a career spanning over forty plus years, it is always a pleasure to build a frame up from scratch. This one started with some old timbers that I had bought at a salvage yard. The only criteria for selection was the vertical grain fir. The bonus was the fact that the wood came from a project of a de-constrution that would all but guarantee that the wood was logged off the side of Mt Hood some 80 yrs ago.
From ripping, to planing, to planing out the rabbets, to chopping the mortices for the through tenons everything was done with hand tools. The electrical use was for the lights and radio. The art is a colaberation of a very successful artist and a 4th grade class. She paints the two watercolors and the kids chop them into strips and weave them together. The subject this time was Mt Hood.
I simply wanted a frame that was Craftsman to honor the high population of Arts and Crafts homes and bungalows here in this part of Portland, OR; and I wanted the frame/wood to look like something that had been sitting around on the side of the mountain these last 80-100 years. The kids were blown away, and it’s expected to fetch a pretty penny at their school auction.
Baer Charlton, CPF, Framewright
Portland, OR
See the Gallery Below:
