Those of you who follow my work know that I’m often inspired to create a frame when I go into Diane’s studio and see a work in progress. Well, recently I saw a dancer that she was painting and immediately thought Flamenco and visualized the fans I’ve seen Flamenco dancers use. Next thing you know I’m searching the net for pictures!! Once I found a picture of the fan to use the next hurdle was figuring out how to make a pattern and transfer that to each corner of the frame. Adding to the challenge is that the frame has a 15° slant to it so using a compass wasn’t an option. The frames size allowed for a circle with a 2″ radius so the first step was to use the Pages program and print off a couple of circles of that size, that’s the gray piece in the right photo. I’m a big fan of using plastic from lettuce containers to make my templates. The paper is attached to it with spray adhesive then cut to shape. For the circular piece in the center I used a 7/14mm gouge to not only cut the template but also the wood. The outside was carefully cut out with scissors and the location of the frame miter was marked on it as well.

Line the template up with the sight edge and the miter to draw the circle (3/4 of one actually). you need a way to divide the circumference into an even number of parts. The only way I know to do this is to use dividers , if you’re not familiar with these they’re the black tool in the right picture. Set up the dividers on paper, not your wood — you’ll be doing a lot of trial and error work to do this so paper is easier to erase! As a furniture maker I use them a lot to divide a given space into equal sized parts and layout dovetails. To use them you “guesstimate” a size you think would work, adjust the dividers to that size and then “step it off” from end to the other end. The goal is for the last step off to end exactly at the end of the piece. Until it does you’ll need to make very small adjustments spreading the legs more or less until you get equal sized fan blades. Keep the dividers at that setting, you’ll need them for each corner. Note: I’ve tried to explain this the best I could but it is confusing, here is a LINK for a short article I found on the net.

Once your corner looks like the left hand picture it’s time to divide the fans — I strongly suggest only doing two blades at a time to save confusion. Measure and make a mark at the center on one blade. Use the dividers to mark the centers of all of them, you may need to eyeball and adjust if it doesn’t look quite right to your eye. The right hand picture shows the arrows drawn to remind me which way the slope goes. Here’s the order that worked for me and the tools I used for this project:

• Use 1F/8mm skew to cut angled line from outside to middle line at the bottom of 2 blades, draw your arrows to indicate slope direction
• Use 3F/6 to cut to desired depth at end of the blade. I also used a 2/10mm and 2/14mm to blend the carving into the rest of the frame
• I used what I call my golf ball skew, it’s an old Marples skew fitted with a golf ball which lets me make curved or straight free hand cuts. Make a straight cut down the middle line from the inner circle to the end of the fan blade
• The goal is to have a tapered cut that slopes to the middle line and down to the end. For me, the best tool was a 3/4″ very sharp bench chisel. Take very light cuts and work from both sides trying to stop your cut before hitting the other side. Definitely practice these, you can’t put the wood back!
• You will probably need to deepen the cut at the end of the fan blade to maintain a sharp edge.
• The grain direction changes on every cut due to the miter and to add to the challenge my profile has a 15° angle too.

Things have been somewhat disorganized in the shop lately! I needed to replicate a previous frame (#256) to send to Diane’s gallery in Carmel to replace a painting sold there, somewhat confusing but it involved a commission Diane received through the gallery so a frame was needed. Diane sent the commissioned painting separately since making the frame required time, it was shipped last week. We are also getting ready to send 9 paintings to her Charleston, SC gallery so I’m busy with the packing of those. In the meantime these are the two frames recently completed.

Frame # 271

It may seem like more work than what is needed but for consistency I make a cutting diagram and annotate the exact chisel/gouge used to cut out the design. It helps me to make a left and right side since the design will be flipped and for me it’s real easy to get confused. At the bench I have the pattern clipped to the tool holder, after doing 3 or 4 of them I start to remember which tool to use but at 75 I like having that pattern to keep on track. For me, using specific tools for each curve helps to keep the design consistent. These pictures below show some of the progress, my goal was to have a consistent flow of the design on all sides. This frame started with what I refer to as my 15° profile and has 1/4″ beads that border the carving.

Frame #270

Hope this blog helps any of you who are discovering new ways to make custom, closed corner frames. When I first started writing these many years ago it came about because of the frustration I had then trying to find information about how to do this “stuff”. Appreciate those of you that read this and the occasional comments and question you ask.

Keep making Sawdust (and chips!) — John

If you make custom picture frames finding Basswood that is more than 4/4 thick leaves you with few choices. Peterman Lumber here in Las Vegas sometimes carries 1 1/16″ which is S2S but usually I end up getting their 5/4 rough Basswood. The next option is 8/4 which is pricier and usually too thick for my frames. In this blog I’ll show you how I use that to make this profile. You’ll need to surface the material first. My method is using a scrub plane to flatten one face then a Powermatic planer to surface it all to a uniform thickness. This batch I was able to get to just under 1 1/8″. My goal is to select boards at Peterman which will yield the widest width when ripped in half, I was only able to get 2 7/8″ from these.

Cut #1: This creates a taper to the sight edge, measure 1/2″ from the edge and adjust fence to cut on the waste side of the line.

Cut #2: Measure down from the sight edge 1/4″ and draw a 15° line parallel to the cut edge. My rabbet depth is 5/16″ so mark that and label it A as shown. I use a saddle square and set in on point A, extend this line on to the face of the board and use that to set the depth of this cut.

Cut #3: The depth of this is determined extending a line from point A to the sight edge with the saddle square. It’ll be done with the molding flat and the back edge against the fence. This is where I suggest having another scrap or two of your material to fine tune this cut. This is why you needed to do the layout on both ends. Once you’re satisfied that the rabbet is good cut all of your frame pieces. I recommend using a feather board to your stock tight against the fence.

Cut #4: This cut gives you the angle, measure down 3/8″ to draw the 15° line using the bevel. The cut is made with the back edge on the table and the face against the fence. Again, use a feather board to keep it tight against the fence.

Cut #5: This cut is made with the face down on the table and the sight edge against the fence. You don’t need to make this cut but I do since is will give the profile a 90° edge when it’s sitting flat. I glue and clamp my frames and it can be done leaving the outside edge at an angle if you temporarily tape a cut off with a 15° angle to it so that your clamps register squarely against the frame. I’ve never used an under pinner but it work with an angled outside edge on the frame. I sneak up on this cut to take it as close as possible to my beads.

I’ve tried to make this write up as plain as possible. If you need any clarification don’t hesitate to contact me through this blog — happy to answer your questions. At the price of lumber these days buying 8/4 stock to get thick enough frame for stretched canvases. With this frame I was able to get a 1 1/8″ space for the painting. Since you’re using thinner material shipping costs are reduced too. Below are my handwritten notes.

Those of you who follow my blog know that I like to share what I’ve learned and discovered in that process. Two main reasons for that, one is that as the years advance we all tend to forget how we did things so for me the blog is like a diary that I keep on line for my own use which reminds me how I did what I did — seven plus decades has shown me that I need this!! The other reason is that when I first began this journey of creating picture frames about 20 years ago finding out the techniques others used and also finding those willing to share them was a challenge. Because of that I decided I’d share what I’ve learned along the way with anyone searching for it.

I’m not very artistic so drawing a design and then being able to replicate it exactly the same on the four corners of a frame isn’t something that I’m able to do. Even if I had the ability to create my own design, reproducing that same image on each corner would be a challenge. Thanks to the ease of the internet I’m able to search for and copy what I need. Once I find a suitable design I put it into my Pages program and resize it to whatever the frame requires. Using spray adhesive the design is attached to a piece of plastic taken from a salad container. My next step is to cut that design out with my carving gouges and annotating which is used where on another piece of paper. This becomes my road map to execute the design.