I was excited to be asked to frame this mola, and to learn more about these decorative textiles. At first touch the artwork has the plumpness of a small quilt with open edges that show the layers of coloured fabric that make up its construction. The client and I agreed on a float mount so that the frame would show off the artwork's character.
Do you have a textile you would like framed?
I mount and frame embroidery, batik and other fabric artworks in my Utrecht workshop. I also stretch canvases both for reproductions and original artworks. Get in touch and we can discuss how best to present and preserve your textile artwork.
Discuss a framing a textile →Mola designs are made through a technique reverse appliqué: layers of coloured fabric are cut and stitched to reveal the colours beneath. Andrea Vazquez de Arthur has a nice article for The Cleveland Museum of Art that introduces the techniques behind these artworks and links with Guna culture:
"Over the last century, the mola has transcended its role as a garment to serve as a visual embodiment of the strength and survival of Guna identity and ethnicity."
A sewn mount
With any textile, the mounting needs to preserve the fabric as well as present it. In my framing practice, I use conservation framing techniques to best minimise the impact mounting has on textile artworks. This mola was in excellent condition and a good candidate for a technique described by The George Washington University Museum wherein small textiles can be mounted to a fabric-covered archival matboard:
A fine thread is used to attach the rearmost fabric layer of the mola to a cotton backing cloth, keeping the stitches out of sight on the decorated face. The cotton backing is then laced around a rigid archival panel, allowing the edges of the mola to hang freely and its surface to remain plump and quilt-like.
If the mola requires reframing, the fine stitches can be carefully unpicked without any lasting impact on the textile. For more detail, I'll follow up in the next week or so with an accompanying framer's note, Conversation Float Mounting for a Mola Textile.
An aubergine surround
The client chose the aubergine matboard, and I think it is excellent. It gives the colours of the mola a rich background and works beautifully with the oak. It has also convinced me to be a little more daring with matboard. I work with a limited palette and often reach for off-white, but this was a good reminder of how much another colour can contribute to a frame.
Utrecht oak
The frame is made from Utrecht oak, with half lap mitres at the corners. It is a beautiful piece of wood, with fine figuring and characterful marks.
When I see something I particularly like in the outcome of a frame, I try to take note of how to reproduce it. I spent some time looking at this particular oak, the wood has a subtle underglow that I suspect comes from the angle at which its face was cut relative to the centre of the tree. I plan on doing some experiments to see if I can replicate it.
The joints are cut so that the grain continues from the vertical sides into the horizontal sides at the corners. The internal oak spacers behind the glass are grain matched too, continuing the grain from the outside to inside.
The finished frame
I was very happy to hear that the client liked their frame, it is one of my favourites as well. A nice comination of interesting artwork, a technical moutning method, and a particularly beautiful cut of Utrecht city grown wood.
If you have textile art, embroidery, batik, or a canvas that you would like to be mounted or stretched for display, send me photographs and its dimensions. We can work through an appropriate design together, choosing a frame that suits the piece while preserving it for the future.
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