Basic Anatomy of a Frame
Hey all. I’m not a framer. It’s true, right up front. I love frames, I love popping my paintings into frames and seeing how pretty it makes them. I enjoy picking out frames and love the protection it gives to finished artwork. I even wire the backs for hanging. But I’m not the kind of craftsman who has the equipment and experience for making frames from scratch or building them to fit unusual sizes of artwork. Those are amazing skills I just don’t feel I have time to acquire right now.
However, I wanted here to talk about the very basic anatomy of your basic picture frame. When someone talks about the breadth of a frame, or the “thickness” of the edges, that’s the “moulding.” A basic guideline on choosing a moulding for one of your paintings has, in my opinion, a lot to do with the size and style of the artwork. Is the painting a classical rococo painting filled with crazy detail and flamboyant realism? If so, you’re probably looking at a very ornate frame to match. Is your art more like a minimalist statement containing only large fields of flat color or geometric shapes? Something more contemporary like that is calling for a modernist-type frame that’s probably composed of straight lines and clean edges, not a lot of ornamentation.
Did you know there’s a name for that little groove in the back of the frame that holds the painting in place? Yep, that’s called the “rabbit.” I’d love to know where that term comes from, but that’s what it’s called. On many standard-sized frames, the rabbit covers about a quarter inch of the painting in from the edges. There are even archival types of framers tape, designed to cover the inside of the rabbit and prevent harmful materials from leeching through from the wood of the frame and affecting the edges of the painting over time. I like using this kind of tape for those reasons, and feeling it provides a little layer of “cushion” for the artwork too.
There’s so much to be said about framing and this is just a most basic intro from an artist who’s “not a framer.” Maybe I’ll write some more of my observations later. In the photo above, you can also see the glare of varnish on the painting. See my previous post to read more about varnishing …and see a couple more pics of framed paintings!