Fine artisan frames.(Design notes)

The noted nineteenth-century American landscape painter Thomas Cole once wrote, "The frame is the soul of the painting." And, indeed, artists have always recognized the important role that frames play in the exhibition of their paintings. Collectors often spend a lot of time and money on a frame suitable to the period of a work, and happily, Larson-Juhl, a company based near Atlanta, has been busy making their quest much simpler. The company designs, manufactures, and distributes over 1,700 fine frames including the special artisan line Concerto.

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The manufacture of Larson-Juhl's frames begins with wood selected from an ecologically managed section of the Black Forest in the Czech Republic. After the logs are processed and shaped, the frame profiles are molded from kiln-dried lumber and then shipped to Senelar, Larson-Juhl's atelier in the village of Hazebrouck near Dunkirk in northwestern France, where each profile is covered with eight to ten layers of gesso primer to create a smooth surface. Next, strips of compo ornament (made from a mixture of chalk or whiting, animal glue, linseed oil, and resin) that have been passed under one of the six hundred embossing wheels in Senelar's collection are applied to the profile. Three coats of liquid clay (bole) are brushed over the compo and gesso to prepare the surface for water gilding. The frames are then sent to a Larson-Juhl atelier in Toronto, where artisans gild with 22-karat gold leaf, burnish, finish, and complete the application of decorations.

Larson-Juhl's respect for the ...