Rose Bryan, Mosaic Artist

Since relocating to Bexley Village, we have had the pleasure of meeting many of its inhabitants, who have entered our workshop to discuss their framing requirements.

One lady in particular has visited us a few times over the last couple of years, Rose Bryan, a lovely local lady who creates mosaic masterpieces. Each piece is time consuming and created by hand, but its clear to see how much Rose enjoys creating her pieces or art, whether its a portrait of a famous person or even a commission to mosaic a family pet. Further information about the Rose and her work can be found here.

She also accepts commissions so feel free to contact her to find out more.

Beautiful Tiger Cross stitch

We have had the pleasure of framing several lovingly hand crafted cross-stitch and embroidery artworks. When a client takes so long to create a beautiful piece of art, we are keen to ensure that it is framed perfectly for them.

Usually we will recommend that cross stitches and embroideries are stretched over a rigid sub straight, normally acid free foam board. This removes any creases in the artwork, without compromising the integrity of the material.

They are then mounted to cover the front edges of the art work, in a colour that compliments the piece.

During the consultation with the client it was agreed that we would frame this piece using a simple white mount so as not to detract from the detail of the Tiger. The artwork was then glazed using UV70 glass, to protect the colours and offer crystal clear clarity. (more information on our glazing options can be found in a previous blog post). Before framing using a gold frame with black detailing.

We hope that you agree this piece is stunning.

Ben Allen

Who doesn’t love a bit of Mickey Mouse? When Ben Allen’s piece “Popaganda Mickey” was placed on our workbench, for a consultation, it instantly bought many smiles.

We all agreed that due to the 3D nature of the artwork, it should be spaced back in the frame away from the glass. This creates a box like effect, but also helps to protect the item. Our client opted for a nice simple black frame, so as not to detract from the art. Visually the framing style really compliments the art and creates a gallery feel.

We have had the pleasure of framing a few of Ben Allen’s art works, he creates art with a contemporary pop art feel to it.

His art has acquired quite the celebrity following, collectors of Allen’s work include the likes of Jade Jagger, Sophie Ellis Bexter, Gordon Ramsay and Richard Branson, just to name a few. Further reading can be found on his website, as well as information about upcoming exhibitions.

Frame Glazing

Here at The Bespoke Framer we stock 3 main types of glass, UV70, Non-reflective and float glass. But there are many other types of glass and acrylic available to our customers, each with there own unique properties…

Here are some of the glass options that we can offer to our customers and a brief outline of their properties:

• Museum Glass®: Is one of the best options because it will give you museum-grade protection. Some of the largest galleries and museums in the world trust this glass to protect history’s most priceless works of art. Its uncompromised protection and clarity preserves and protects the image behind the glass from harm. Its 2.5mm thickness offers better strength and rigidity than your basic, everyday picture frame glass, ensuring unparalleled clarity for years to come.

Museum glass

UV70/ UV92 glass

Non Reflective glass

Float Glass

Standard Acrylic

optium museum acrylic

Conservation clear acrylic

• UV70 / UV92 : Which block 70% / 92% of UV rays. This is conservation grade glass and is perfect for keeping historic images and items of value in excellent shape, especially in highly lit environments, either via sunlight or lightbulbs.

• Non-Reflective glass: This glass will offer a non-reflective quality to your item, it works very well with dark images, but will offer no protective qualities to your item.

• Basic float glass: While protective against everyday wear and tear elements, dust etc, Float glass does not offer anti-reflective or UV protective properties, so will not help to prevent colour fade, sun damage etc. We do not recommend using float glass to protect your most cherished memories, or items of value.
  

Acrylic, as opposed to glass, has some different uses and properties. Here are some of the most popular types of acrylic:

• Optium Museum Acrylic: Trusted by the world’s most renowned museums, this state-of-the-art glazing boasts a virtually invisible anti-reflective coating allowing viewers to see the finest details in crystal clear color neutrality, while its UV-filtering, abrasion resistant acrylic, and anti-static coating offer uncompromising protection and preservation. Acrylic, however, is much lighter than glass, so it offers even further opportunity for wall hanging your most cherished memories.

• Conservation Clear Acrylic: While conservation clear doesn’t offer the same level of protection against abrasions and static as Optium Museum Acrylic, it does block 99% of UV rays and has shatter-proof safeguards in place.

• Standard acrylic Glass: Standard acrylic glass doesn’t offer the same level of protection as any of the above two products, but it is fine for displaying images indoors so if you printed off photos from a family vacation that you can easily replace, standard plastic glass may be fine for you. But if you’re trying to protect a once-in-a-lifetime image/document, you should go with a product that offers conservation qualities.

During the consultation process we will advise the best glazing options to suit your item.

Amazing Lee Jefferies photographic prints

Over the last few years we have had the privilege of framing a few of the amazing photographic prints by the talented Lee Jefferies.

The raw details in the photographs are intriguing and draws the viewer in. Each of his photographs are taken of homeless individuals, who each have their own story to tell.

The latest piece we have framed for a customer is entitled “Lover”, which we window mounted using a white mountboard and framed in a black frame with a slight silver fleck, this was glazed using UV70 specialist art glass.

Further information on Lee Jefferies and his photography can be found on his website here.

Large Kristjana S. Williams limited edition print.

An artist that always captures the imagination with so much detail and vivid colours in her pieces. There is so much to discover in her artwork.

This large limited edition Kristjana Willliams print came into our workshop recently for framing. Upon consultation is was agreed that the piece should be mounted to ensure it doesn’t touch the glass, so we mounted it using a jumbo bright white mount, with minimal borders.

The client opted for a nice simple white frame so not to detract from the artwork.

Further information on Kristjana Williams and her beautiful art can be found here

Sir Peter Blake (Part 2)

As mentioned in an earlier blog post, we had the pleasure of meeting Sir Peter Blakes bother recently, who commissioned us to frame a gift from his brother. An artists proof depicting some iconic symbols, from Coca Cola to the infamous Mickey Mouse.

It was a delight to have a chat with Mr Blake about their past and upbringing in our local town of Dartford.

We framed the piece using a clean white mount, so the colours and imagery could really pop, encased in a simplistic black frame, and using specialist UV70 glass to ensure those colours don’t fade. We look forward to framing the next Sir Peter Blake piece that comes through our door.

Sir Peter Blake.

Since we opened our doors back in 2018 we’ve had a few pieces of art come in by the talented Sir Peter Blake (Learn more)

Firstly it was a “Mickey Mouse” print that was created for Comic Relief, Red Nose Day 2019 (Learn more). A very vibrant and colourful piece depicting the world famous Mickey Mouse. Which we framed in a simple black frame to allow the artwork to shine.

More recently we had another piece come in by Sir Peter Blake “Heart” another pop art explosion of colour. His pieces really are joyful to frame.

Then a few days later we had a nice visit from Peter’s brother! Just shows it really is a small world. He has asked us to a frame a piece for him… but which one? watch this space….

The amazing talents of others…

We love meeting new people and hearing their stories.

We were fortunate enough to meet the talented Ranjit Bhamra who is a very talented and inspirational mouth and foot painting artist and proud member of the MFPA (Learn more) society, when he bought a few of his pieces into us to frame.

Together we agreed on the materials and framing methods to showcase his artworks and we were all very happy with the finished frames.

“Passionate Petals” By Ranjit Bhamra.

I’m sure you can agree Ranjit has an amazing talent and it was a pleasure to meet him and create his frames for him.

Read more of Ranjit’s story and see more of his work here.

Olly Howe.

One of the enjoyable aspects of being a picture framer, is getting to see and frame a variety of art by an endless range of artists, local, international, well established and the lesser known talents of this world.

A popular Cornish artist of whom we have had the pleasure of framing several of his prints, the talented Olly Howe (Learn more). It is always a pleasure when a customer brings in one of Olly’s prints, having owned a couple ourselves, we are already fans of his work. For Olly’s works we like to let the art speak for itself, as they are full of vibrant colours and textures.

The first image shows a Olly Howe print that we shadow mounted, which gives the illusion that the artwork is floating inside the frame, and finished with a simple black frame. The second print is framed directly behind glass without a mount and enclosed in a frame to compliment the artwork.

Universal Orlando Studios golf balls and baseballs.

We always welcome a challenge here at the bespoke framer, when a recent client bought in 2 bags full of Universal Orlando Studios, souvenirs in the form of 16 golf balls and 19 baseballs, with the request that they go into 2 frames, one showcasing the golf balls and the other the baseballs. We knew we had an interesting challenge on our hands.

During the consultation we discussed how they could be framed and what materials we thought would work best, the client gave us the green light to use some artistic license and do what we felt would make the balls look their best.

We decided to make full use of our Valani mount cutter and sink the balls into circular cut outs in the mounts, which we triple mounted to give each ball its own individual triple mount. Using the American flag colours of red, blue and white.

This was then placed into a deep rebate frame with spacers to recess back the mounted balls so that they could not touch the glass.

Upon completion the client was extremely happy with our choices and the finished product.

Crystal Geode framing

A first for The Bespoke Framer, we were tasked with framing three crystal geode halves. This was particularly tricky given the weight of each geode and the difference in each ones dimensions.

During the consultation with the customer it was agreed that they would need to be set back in a deep frame which required a subframe, we added a suede mount board which added a luxurious feel to the finished frame. The crystals are set back on the mount to keep them in place.

We are very pleased with the finished frames, another challenge completed by The Bespoke Framer.

Phil Shaw, Shelf Isolation

We recently had a customer come in with a Phil Shaw Bookshelf print titled “Shelf Isolation” which has a meaningful message of hope for everyone at the moment.

Many artists and novices have responded creatively to the current coronavirus pandemic, but perhaps none with the brilliant of Phil Shaw. His latest work - titled “Shelf isolation” - has become a global sensation, the image has gone viral on social media, and appearing in newspapers and television stations across the world.

In “Shelf Isolation” Shaw has artfully constructed a range of genuine book-titles in a bookcase, so that, when read in order, they deliver a much needed message of hope. Further information on the Artist can be found his website Here

We float framed the image to give it further depth within the frame and added a simple white frame to allow the image to speak for itself.

Double Rugby Shirt

A tricky job framing two rugby shirts, the client wanted to display both the front and the back of the shirts within the same frame. Finished with a a mirrored aluminium frame the final result was a win for The Bespoke Framer.