A New Mounting Method

During a discussion of methods for mounting artwork, a friend (thank you, Michael!) pointed me to a type of frame called a floater frame, of which you can see examples here. They are designed for painted canvases, and one could say that is what I make; they are just painted with thread, not oil or acrylic paint.

The effect is a dark frame with a stretched canvas "floating" inside it; there is a sort of moat between the inner surface of the frame and the outer surface of the canvas.

The commercially available versions are expensive, and made with the artist in mind, not the woodworker. Since I have one of the latter inhouse, we've adapted the idea so that DH can construct the frames for me at a far lower cost-per-linear-inch than the pre-manufactured ones.

We chose a simple "L"-shaped profile, and found a reasonable facsimile at the local big-box DIY store. DH has the tools to turn 10-foot lengths of unfinished-but appropriately-L-shaped wood into custom frames spray-painted black.

As a prototype, we chose one of my earlier, smaller pieces that's already mounted on a canvas stretcher:

This closeup might give a better idea of the "moat" surrounding the canvas:

Oh, well, it also gives a view of the lumpy corner on this one. Too bad. It's a prototype, after all.