O.K., More Crazy stuff...

neilframer

PFG, Picture Framing God
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Jan 27, 2010
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Location
Phoenix, AZ
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Rectangles
We had to gallery wrap a canvas to be hung on a curved wall in the customer's house.
We went out and made a template of the curved wall.
I did something like this years ago, but it's been a while.

This house is a thirty minute drive each way North of our shop in Phoenix.

The curved bars were made and the canvas stretched.
It was about 48" x 60".
There was no way to eliminate ripples or puckers at the top and bottom of the wrapped parts in the curved area, but when it was hung on the wall, you don't see them unless you want to get up on a ladder to look over the top or get down on your knees to look underneath.
It wasn't 100% done in this photo, but after a few tweaks it was ready.

I helped with the installation and the curved wall is painted orange and is right at the end of the entrance hallway where it flows into the living room area in the house.
It fit the curved wall perfectly.
I would post a picture of the installation but I don't usually do that from a private home without permission.
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Another project.
5 shadow boxes, actually cabinets for old knives, swords, bayonets, etc.

The customer wanted to be able to open the frames (cabinets) and remove any of the items.

The shadow boxes were to be hung horizontally and they had magnetic closures with lock and key cabinet locks and also gas struts so when opened, the framed doors would pop up and stay up until closed.

All of the knives and bayonets had custom made mounts with magnets embedded in the mounts to hold them.
Optium Museum was installed after the photos were taken.
This project took about 4 months because we had to work on it in between all of our other commercial and retail jobs and installations.
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That first one takes the cake. Let's just call it the ultimate frame job. Custom-built stretcher with curves, tight dimensions, and a big stretch. Then getting it out of the shop and up on the wall without damaging it. Incredible.
 
We had to gallery wrap a canvas to be hung on a curved wall in the customer's house.
We went out and made a template of the curved wall.
I did something like this years ago, but it's been a while.

This house is a thirty minute drive each way North of our shop in Phoenix.

The curved bars were made and the canvas stretched.
It was about 48" x 60".
There was no way to eliminate ripples or puckers at the top and bottom of the wrapped parts in the curved area, but when it was hung on the wall, you don't see them unless you want to get up on a ladder to look over the top or get down on your knees to look underneath.
It wasn't 100% done in this photo, but after a few tweaks it was ready.

I helped with the installation and the curved wall is painted orange and is right at the end of the entrance hallway where it flows into the living room area in the house.
It fit the curved wall perfectly.
I would post a picture of the installation but I don't usually do that from a private home without permission.
View attachment 27841
How did you construct the curved rails?
 
How did you construct the curved rails?
The curved rails were made from layers of glued together thin strips of wood.
We made a cardboard template of the curved wall at the customer's house.
Then a wooden jig was constructed from a large piece of plywood with 1" wooden dowels drilled into and arranged on the plywood board in the shape of the curve.

Thin strips of wood were cut, about 1/4" thick and they were bent around the dowels on the plywood board.
A number of layers of these thin strips were applied and each layer was glued and clamped to the next to create a kind of curved plywood.
Then after everything was set to dry for a few days, the end pieces were attached.
The curved stretcher then had to be "skinned" with wood over the face to support the canvas along the curve or the canvas would just dip into the curved area when stretched and not follow the shape.
The stretcher was then skinned with thin Luan, like door skin material glued over the face of the bars.
 
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We just did the installation of the 4 shadowboxes with the knives, swords and bayonets.
They were installed in the "man cave" in an amazing house.
I've been to this house before to hang a gigantic tapestry in the dining room.

This house has it's own roads on the property.
It's more like a resort and not just a family home.
There is always a crew working on the landscaping, building maintenance etc.
There are outbuildings for the help and for guests.
There is a full sized elevator that goes from the kitchen to the upstairs and also down to the "man cave".
The elevator doors on every floor have full sized hand painted chefs on the doors.
On the lower level with the "man cave" is a full sized movie theater with neon marquee at the entrance.
The "man cave" also has a full sized chilled wine room and a cigar smoking area.

So this is the installation of the shadowboxes.
They have Optium on them and the boxes have locking front doors that can be opened.
The doors have struts on them so when unlocked the framed front door will just pop up and stay up and all of the knives and swords are held in place with magnets and can be removed and handled if desired.
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Question about the knives and swords. You had to make all of the boxes so deep because of that one lousy sword with the fat guard? Or was it because of the struts?

Amazing project.

Well done - I saw them when Alan posted them on FB - did not realize you two worked together.

Hey Neil - you are *almost* on Facebook! ;)
 
Question about the knives and swords. You had to make all of the boxes so deep because of that one lousy sword with the fat guard? Or was it because of the struts?
Amazing project.
Well done - I saw them when Alan posted them on FB - did not realize you two worked together.
Hey Neil - you are *almost* on Facebook! ;)

They had to be deep partly because of the struts and because they all had to match.
Alan is left handed and I am right handed and he often brings in the crazy artistic ideas and I try to MacGyver them together but we often interchange what we do in designing, selling, building, fitting and yes... we even putty the frames sometimes...:D
 
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