Little Mia Suzanna was born at 10:48pm this evening (North Dakota time).
She was 9 lbs. 10 oz. and 20 1/2 inches.
I'm officially a grandma and extremely happy!
I apologize to everyone for being gone so long but I've been
really busy with many labor intensive things around my house.
Because I'm so exhausted by nightfall, I've been going to bed
much earlier and sleeping really well. I'll visit a few new blog
posts in the morning but then it's back to the grind to finish
some projects, paintings and landscaping.
thesnakeandiandthebutterfly 
Pam, I also want to be a grandmother. AMEN.
Thank you for sharing your view on different galleries.Originally posted by PainterWoman:
That's what I dread about being a painter … :bug:
Why don't you learn to do your own framing? You can get a chop saw very cheaply these days. All you need to do to keep them square is cut a stick that will be the exact length of the diagonals* and then put a spot of super-glue on each corner.The super-glue is a contact adhesive. You put it on one edge and offer the other one to it carefully by sliding them together on a bench.If the saw is cutting "square" there should be no difficulty with gaps, or out of square-ness. Practice with some architrave then when you feel confident move up to some real picture frames.What are real picture frames anyway?
Baguette mouldings, Pam … you nail them direct to the stretcher and just lap the joints. Not elegant, but it works. No good for watercolours and works on paper, though.
Nevin: Being a grandmother makes me feel very special.Marmaze: Your welcome. My very first large showing had me hiding in the back. Seriously. I was pretending to just be sipping coffee but was really hiding. The gallery owner came back and told me several people wanted to ask me about my paintings. I took a deep breath then finally went in the gallery area. It turned out not to be so bad and I found I enjoyed talking about my art. Now, if there were little bistro tables and chairs in the gallery areas, that would be ideal for me. Standing for several hours can get tiring. WL: I have done some framing in the past. For the paintings on canvas that is. My sawing abilities are not so good, however. A crudely sawn frame is great for my diesel engine paintings as it seems to go together. But to cut a mat for a work on paper is another story. The mats have to be perfect and my cuts are not perfect. dW: Yes, I've done those. For my exhibit of my engine paintings, all were done like that except for the six foot wrecked car painting. I used straight cut 1 by threes.
Yes, Pam… me know that emotion to live
LOL … my dad used to cut mats freehand, with a single-edge razor blade held in his fingers. The only guide he had was a light pencil line that he drew with a yardstick. He even cut the bevels. But that was him … most folks can't do that, and wouldn't try. Mat cutters aren't too expensive, and work well. They take a little practise, though. They're better than scissors … LOL … my wife did that when she was a kid.
Chop saws cost from 30 to 300 quid over here. Low end toy, supermarkets stock for the spring cleaning DIY season and quality tools for tradesmen are perennial sellers in the more expensive tool shops.Yet I swear one of them would be ideal for you.If the blade has enough teeth, the end result will be perfect. Seriously, it can't be improved on with a plane. The blades fitted to the cheap saws won't have enough teeth but you can buy a better blade for it (subject to availability.)Alternatively, marry an handy-man.http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_playlists&search_query=picture+framing+%2Bchop+saw&uni=1
Originally posted by PainterWoman:
now that's a good idea. i might even make a stab at the gallery scene if they would get so civilized. why must it always be a cocktail party?i did my time in my teens at gallery openings. then, i was very contemptuous towards anyone who wasn't an artist. :smile:i think they must have hated me. i was very abrupt and dismissive. but they bought everything.i could do it now. and i would be suave and entertaining. 😆
The onliest problem with the cheap saws is the problem of repeatability. It is difficult to get the angles to remain consistent, cut-to-cut. You're absolutely right about the number of teeth, though … my plywood 200-tooth "planer" blade gives a cut edge that's almost shiny. I actually like a slightly rougher cut for gluing. And frames should be glued; frames are furniture, and furniture must be glued. Any fasteners are intended as temporary clamps (you say "cramps", I believe) that could actually be removed once the glue has cured. They aren't removed, because it would be a pain in the arse.
For picture frames a contact adhesive like modern cyanates is idea and perfectly strong enough. They will absorb into the end grain. There is nothing to stop you putting a dot on both sides. But I swear it isn't necessary.A contact adhesive means you can put the glue on one side of the work or on 4 sides or as many as you wish, go for a cuppa and then come back, check the next steps and do a run-through one last time then slide the pieces together.If they are cut square they will be square and remain so indefinitely.Getting a decent blade is as expensive as a cheap saw. Generally the more teeth per inch (not per blade if the blade is a different size) the smoother the cut.Also the angle the tooth is set at is important but that is decided by the company's engineers.What you do is buy a length of 1/2 plywood to go back against the fence as you cut. This absorbs some vibration and stops all the end rattle as the blade goes through.It only has to be a little taller than the work piece.Modern cheap saws are just as good as the more expensive but have less windings in them. But you don't need 4 horse power to cut picture frames. They are unlikely to last as long as they tend to get overworked and abused.If you pay hundreds for a tool you tend to treat it with considerable respect. Also market forces come into play. Had the Chinese not started making cheap ones. The more expensive companies would have started bringing their prices down as more amateurs and side trades got interested in them.Nowadays you can get huge diamond blades for them and use them for tiling a method unheard of a decade or so back.But since occasional users are happy with the cheap ones for the once in an house purchase use, the more expensive stuff has had to remain pricey.The other problem is holding the work square in the fence. With architrave you put the back of the wok against the bottom of the saw fence and cut 45 degrees.But quite often the timber is not flat. It gets wet or it dries.Who knows what weird shapes a painter might want to experiment with. With rebated stuff you do have a nice flat back to work with but it is on a step.What you do then is get another strip of ply to sit it on. Clean the saw dust off everywhere for each cut while you get used to it. Before long you will be running the stuff through quick as a wink.Before long you will be making your own picture frame stock. Another cheapo: A router. The cheap ones are heavier than the expensive and are usually less easy to use though I don't see why.Again the expense is the router bit. You can get cheap sets and I would to play with the tool. Experiment on architrave. Then end up cutting your own rebate to suit.The original use for a picture frame was to enable the artist to work on canvass. These days the frame is an after thought. And mostly decorative.
Originally posted by Weatherlawyer:
That sounds great – I'll try that! 🙂 Question 1: is that stick permanent or temporay? Question 2: will matting do or does it need to be from wood?I just bookmarked this page as "Weatherlawyer on Framing" 🙂 – hope you don't mind, PainterWoman 🙂
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
May be that's why – your personal touch :cheers:
You don't need jigs and clamps or fixings with modern glues. But you must treat them with a lot of respect.Try it with lolly sticks. Just use a dab of glue and wait for it to dry. The next thing to touch that piece will be there for life.
No.To get a frame to stay square when the glue was going off, or as you put the nails in, you cut a stick that was the length of one of the diagonals.It was thus the same length as both diagonals. Once the fixings are in the stick can go. It's just a check.It's the same in making a gate and you want to drill the bolt holes in the right place, you have to know the gate is square.You can do it with a tape measure but that is a little tricky with a large frame. The stick can go straight away. It's just a check.There lots of advice on this sort of thing on uk.D-I-Y (a usenet group.)
Ah … a contact cement. I thought you were talking about cyanocrylate adhesives. BTW, cyanocrylates have started to see use in some woodworking … even the runny ones. I bought a Woodrat that recommender cutting and fitting box joints and assembling them before the adhesive is applied. The adhesive is then brushed onto the joint on the outside, paying especial attention to the endgrain, which sucks the stuff in and swells, making a very tight, almost a very shallow dovetail, and then sets up, becoming as permanent as one could imagine. I've never tried it, and I suspect that a closed-grained wood, like maple, beech or birch, would not work as well as a more open-grained wood, such as oak or ash, or walnut, to say nothing of the softer secondary woods.I'm not sure that I'd want to cut box-joints in oak, anyway … ash or walnut would be OK.
Originally posted by derWandersmann:
dW: That takes quite a knack. Me? I have to have everything bolted down so it won't move. I do have a mat cutter or two but they've never been taken out of the box. Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
I've never been that way….hmmmmm….maybe I should start. Politeness doesn't seem to get sales. Too bad I'm such a late bloomer, I'd have it all down pat. Originally posted by derWandersmann:
Originally posted by Weatherlawyer:
dW and WL: These are some of the reasons I don't like measuring and sawing myself. Give me a hammer and nail and I'm fine, or have me saw a tree limb, but anything that has to be precise….well, ya better let someone else do it. I use clamps, glue and whatever else I can find to try and keep everything even/precise but it is not perfect. With my engine paintings, the framing doesn't need to be perfect but with other paintings, I insist. Oh, and I bought oak once to make a frame. Dreadful!….cutting it AND trying to hammer a tiny nail into it. Originally posted by marmaze:
I don't mind at all Marmaze. I get lots of ideas from people commenting on my blog.
You can't hammer nails into stuff like picture frame. And you can't hammer nails into oak.Picture frame is too frail and oak isn't.Get a cheap saw and some superglue.I will not tell you again.
Originally posted by PainterWoman:
hi, late bloomer… 😆 with hard woods just drill a pilot hole just slightly smaller than the diameter of the nail.so you have a grandaughter. someday you can teach her all you've learned from wl and dw about framing with a chop saw. :lol:happy easter pam
I'm keeping out of it."There is a lion in the market place. I shall not go out says the…"None of my damn business. If she doesn't want to mess around with frames that's hers.
Yes oak is a hard wood for sure. Tried the pilot holes but made them the same size as the nail so when I picked up the painting, the frame came right off. I learned quite a bit from those mistakes. Happy Easter to all of you guys. This late bloomer will be seeing her first grandchild in just about ten days.
hurray.:jester: :wait:
Congrats, Pam! She's so cute & I love the name Mia. 😀
Thank you Naomi. Only nine more days and I'll see her.
I just remembered it's 110v. But I don't think it will work on your mains, something to do with the way your circuitry is set up. This thing is designed fo use with a transformer to a 240 mains.It would probably cost as much as its worth to send it. Though I can't see me using it again.
I've got the perfect present for her.Do you think she'd like a Boschman tilting pull/chop saw with a 9" blade and any amount of Tungsten Carbide teeth?Ideal for framing anything from houses to pictures.(Collect.)
Originally posted by Weatherlawyer:
😆 I don't know about that but I do know her daddy is going to buy her a miniature set of golf clubs.
Hope you enjoyed your Easter 🙂
WL: I misunderstood you. You were going to ship a saw? dW is right, the shipping would cost more than the saw itself more than likely. Plus, ours are 220v or something like that. I have an electric saw that has never been taken out of the box. Bought it two years ago but need a table to mount it on. I'll get to it eventually IF I get over the fear of the saw.L.D.: Thank you LD. Except for the fact that I mowed my lawn in the front yard, my Easter was very quiet and peaceful. I've been getting a lot done since I'm not on the pc as much.
Shipping is too dear, WL.
Go ahead and mount it, Pam … it's simplicity itself. And, most men to the contrary (flying in the face of tradition, here), the instruction sheet is a good guide. I won't say infallible, because I've run across some doozies, but it's likely to be useful.
No it was a joke. I'm sure the kid's parents wouldn't let her play with it until she is older.
Originally posted by PainterWoman:
Same here, Pam. But it's too bad that I am addicted to Opera 😀 Glad that you've done lots of things. Enjoy your day!