A frame made for a print by artist and illustrator Tabatha Boekweit supplied by Meisje in het Wit. The client and I agreed that the vibrant colours of the artwork suited an equally bold approach to wood, with bookmatched beech agreed to be complementary while suitably eyecatching. The finished frame is quite large at about 70x85cm with a central image of about 40x55cm, a 10cm passepartout, and a frame of about 5cm thickness.
The beech originated from a tree grown in the city of Utrecht and sourced from Tafelboom. It was a knotty and highly figured piece of wood whose nature was to hold a lot of tension, requiring it to be cut to size little by little, flattening out any cups and twists as they appeared. Bookmatching the wood by splitting in the lengths and re-gluing in mirror-image helps stabilise the final pieces by equalising any remaining tensions (across one plane).
This project was delayed for some weeks as we were unable to find a suitably large piece of second-hand glass to glaze the frame. In early February one appeared at Kringloopwinkel De Waard allowing the project to proceed. As the second hand donor frame was in good condition I was also able to re-use the backing board, while upgrading the hanging hardware to robust D-rings attached to the frame itself.
As with all of my frames, the art has been installed in a reversible manner that will allow it to be reframed in the future. This is particularly relevant to this piece, as the frame will likely not last forever. In part this is due to the nature of the wood, although were I to take on a similar project again then a frame of this kind would be a good candidate for an additional strainer back. This is essentially a secondary reinforcing frame embedded in the rear of the piece, as demonstrated in this video by Gallery Seven Frame Shop.
“Completely in love with this frame, the bookmatched beech really makes the colours in Tabatha Boekweit’s print pop, and it feels even better knowing everything was done so sustainably and thoughtfully."
You can find out more about ordering your own custom frame by using our online custom frame builder, or for more options or special projects you can get in contact about a custom order. If you're shopping for a gift, be sure to check out our personalized giftsets of pre-framed art that you can order gift wrapped. Thanks for your support!
0 comments