Framing Portraits

[edward]

Just curious on making portraits when framing do you use glass inserts or just leave plain.

[dgman]

No glass for me.

[Dave Monk]

No glass for me. I like people to be able to feel the texture.

[kmmcrafts]

For my personal use, I frame with glass to help keep dust contaminates off the piece. If you've tried dusting a detailed fretwork piece you'll put glass in it to help from having to do the horrible dusting job, LOL

That all said, portraits I sell.. I do not frame at all.. Selling online has it's benefits and my conclusion on frames or no frames has come from being able to "offer" just the piece and framed and framed with glass. Over the years I've only sold one piece that was framed.. I think it has to do with a few things... 

1) shipping cost is substantially more with a framed piece

2) homemade frames aren't as cheap as a dollar store or even hobby lobby etc. and I'm not competing in their category for frames

3) customers personal decor style.. Before I gave the options for unframed.. they'd ask if I could make a dark wood, light wood, painted black, blah blah blah.. and then offering different prices for unframed vrs. framed and not selling any framed.. well.. one less thing I gotta make to sell it. LOL I have thought about re-offering framed again to see if maybe things changed in the last 8 years... 10-12 years ago portraits was the main things I sold aside from ornaments.   

[FrankEV]

3 hours ago, edward said:

Just curious on making portraits when framing do you use glass inserts or just leave plain.

If you design you portrait panels to be 8x10, 11x14 or 16x20 (all standard photo sizes) or 8.5 x11 or 11x17 (standard paper sizes) you can use commercial frames from places like Walmart, Michales, and Hobby Lobby.  The less expensive frames usually come with glass and a cardboard backer which are discarded.  However, I ahve found more and more of my portraits are not any of these standard sizes, so custom frames are necessary.

My custom frames are usually simple 3/4" thk x1 3/4" wide and usually Poplar, rabbeted 1/4 x 1/2" and mitered on table saw, no glass.  I use a homemade miter sled to get relatively neat accurate miters.  I glue the miters with Titebond Ultimate using a frame making strap clamp and reinforce the joinsts with frame V-nails.  I have standerdized my portrait panels to 5/32" thk cut panel and a 1/4" backer, so the 1/2" deep reabbet always works well.  

Frame finish depends on portrait subject.  I have done almost every thing from distressed to, most recently, high gloss Black Lacquer.   Most often I use various Minwax stains and finish/protect with either Clear Spray Poly or Wipe-on Poly.  I have use Polycrylics, but not a big fan.  Application of a pre-stain and a lot of sanding makes for a quality frame.

My portrait panels are set in the frame loose using framing points (glasier points also work).  

Since Scroll Work portraits look best when hung flat on wall and are very lightweight, I install just one small saw tooth tap-in picture hanger centered on the back of the top rail.  A very small headed nail is all that is required to hang on wall and they do almost no damage to wall.

[daveww1]

I frame quite a few of the things I make. I get 1x2 pine or oak at Lowes, I rabbet the back for the scroll sawn project and cut a 1/8" groove near the front of the frame. The groove holds a glass panel to keep the dust off. I cut the miters, slip in the glass as I'm gluing the frame together. The project is then inserted into the rabbet in the back. I use a sawtooth hanger to hang the piece.

[edward]

Thanks for the replies!

[Denny Knappen]

Getting back to the question, I prefer Acrylite, a framing product much like Plexiglass.  I use it for same reason as Kevin, dust protection.