sgraffiti - Art Framing and Gilding Services

At s’grafitti, we have established ourselves as a specialist framers with over 20 years experience. We supply galleries, interior designers, other framers, exporters and local clients,although our reputation attracts private clients from further afield. We have a whole wall of corner samples to select from, most of which can have hundreds of different finishes. We offer expert guidance to help you choose the right combination. We can also provide mill moulding to specification. Many different types of wood are appropriate for frame making, and we use the following: Ash, maple, oak, cherry, sycamore, walnut, chestnut, beech, elm & sapele.

We get many requests for box frames and have developed unique mounting techniques to keep the artwork flatter on the supporting board than with more traditional methods. s'graffiti have been gilding frames for galleries, private clients, interior designers and other framers for many years. Corner chevrons can be supplied to help you or your clients make informed choices, or we can work to specification. s’graffiti works with numerous galleries to produce the ideal frames for their art. We keep abreast of current trends in the aesthetics of framing modern art. Some of our clients are: Cross Street Gallery, Robert Sandelson Gallery, Sadie Cole HQ,Austin Desmond Fine Art, Imperial War Museum, Art First, and Estorick Collection. Our premises are secure and insured to cover high value art.You can park in our customers’ car park, by prior arrangement.

Box frames Box frames allow you to see the roughened paper edge on handmade paper. You can also use this method to frame 3-D objects such as medals, shoes, football shirts etc. We can supply any size, depth or type of box frame and add any of our finishes.

We can mill wood to your own specifications. s’graffiti 172 Stoke Newington Church Street Stoke Newington London N16 0JL Tel/fax: 020 7254 7961 Mobile: 07833 588 548 www.sgraffiti.co.uk email: info@sgraffiti.co.uk

Opening hours: Monday – Friday 09.30am – 5.30pm Saturday 11.30-6pm

s’graffiti is situated in the courtyard at the rear of the Post Office on Stoke Newington Church Street.

Parking by prior arrangement only – please phone to arrange this.

Finishes Painted finishes: We use water based paints to give a rough, brushed appearance, or build up many coats, sanded and polished to match any colour or tone. A large selection of white and black finishes is available. Stains: Our wooden frames can be toned with a wide range of spirit stains, providing a spectrum of wood colours.

Waxes: We prefer to use wax to seal the finish, softer than varnish or shellac, available in clear or with earth pigments, matt or polished to a high degree.

Gesso/Bole: The layers underneath a gilded frame can be beautiful finishes in their own right. We gesso or gesso/bole in different earth tones.

Mirror (verre églomise) The original way of producing mirror glass whereby silver or gold leaf is attached to glass to give a reflective surface. Small breakages in the leaf are highlighted by painting an appropriate colour on the back of the mirror.

Mounting We prefer to use Museum quality cotton or linen based mountboard as it contains no lignin which reacts with cellulose to produce acids that damage artwork. Conservation mountboard is wood based but “buffered” with chalk to neutralise these acids, and we can supply this if requested. All types of mounts are offered: window, recess, float,wash lines etc. We cold-mount to a variety of substrates, including aluminium and foam-core.

Water Gilding This process involves extremely thin sheets of gold applied to a surface prepared with layers of gesso ground, (chalk and size) used to fill all imperfections in the wooden frame. After smoothing, bole, a pigmented clay and size solution, is applied in many layers. This helps prepare the gesso surface. The final layers are hand rubbed to create as smooth a surface as possible for the leaf to be applied.Next the surface is wetted in small areas by 'gilders water', a water-size-alcohol solution which activates the adhesive qualities of the bole. Gold, white gold, silver, even palladium or platinum in extremely thin sheets are dropped onto the wetted surface: capillary action as well as the water soaking into the clay draws the leaf down. The leaf can be burnished to a brilliant, polished appearance when dry, or can be distressed to reveal the bole underneath. It can also be toned to adjust the colour.

S'graffiti
172 Stoke Newington Church Street
Stoke Newington
London N16 0JL
Tel/fax: 020 7254 7961
Mobile: 07833 588 548
www.sgraffiti.co.uk
email: info@sgraffiti.co.uk