The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1885-09-16
Homemade Picture Frames.

The following directions LOT max
ing neat picture frames from com.
mon brown paper are so full and
clear that our readers will have no
difficulty in carrying them out:
Take an ordinary drawing, or
print, or photograph. Mount the
picture with ordinary paste on a
piece of smooth cardbord. Any
color. plain or printed, will do, if it
only has a fair surface and enough
thickness to withstand the warping.
Let this cardboard be the size of the
print that is, the actual black-and-
white picture. regardless of the mar
gin it possessed in its first state).
with an outer margin of equal width
all around. If the print itself is five
by seven inches, allow a clear three
inches each side, making the size OF
the mount eleven by thirteen inches.
Paste the picture without cutting of
the old margin, (as it may be useful
for reference, and will be hidden in
the exact centre. Then take piece
of the gray mottled cardboard, now
so much used and so easily obtain
ed cut from the centre piece eth
er five by seven or six be eight inch
es, at will. Some prefer the gray
mount to touch the picture every
where; others like a narrow white
| border. with the name of the artist,
ETC., visible. This is, we think, only
to be decided by the character of the
drawing, as some are mvch improv-
ed by allowing no other white than
left in the drawing to destroy the
value of the tones of the picture it
self. Having cut the gray mount.
take a piece of rough cardboard, the
top of a paper box or other avail
able material. and cut it eleven by
thirteen; and at the distance of
three -fourths of an inch from the top,
and cay three inches and a halt
from the sides, cut two short upright
slits with a sharp penknife, and pass
piece of narrow tape through
them this will lie fiat on the sur
face, and should be tied behind in
knot close to one of the slits, so that
firm and unobtrusive support is
left to hang the picture when COM
plete. Then, having procured a
piece of glass eleven by thirteen
inches, lay the cardboard fiat on the
table, above that place the mounted
etching, then over that the cut-out,
mount, and the glass over all. Next
cut some thick brown paper into
strips an inch or an inch and half
wide: thoroughly paste these, and
bind the four thicknesses together,
the brown paper showing about half
an inch all around in front, and well
over the back, being cut in mitre
fashion at the angles. When dry it
will be ready to hang, and, after
first cleaning off any paste.marks
from the glass, will be found very
pleasing little picture, unpretentious
in appearance, the framing being
not unlike plain oak frame at a
distance, and an ornament-or at
least no disfgurement-in itself,
apart from the actual etching, in any
room it may find itself The cost of
the glass is at most IL cents, and the
cardboard perhaps 5 or 6 cents so
that for IL or IS cents a picture may
be neatly framed. But this does
not exhaust the possibilities of
brown paper. Ifthe old gilded mold
ing, fly-specked and furnishing, is
well re-clothed with brown paper,
soaked with paste, and well stuck
on, so that it shows every feature of
the molding, it gives a very present
able appearance. The paper should
be pasted a few minutes before use,
and thoroughly nodded to the wood.
Each hollow and fillet will be seen
sharply defined; and the whole will
dry hard, and, while unlike paper,
look somewhat like oak, and present
a certain fresh character of its own,
not attainable in any other way. In
this case the brown paper is pleas
ant variety itself to the gray mot
tied card for the cut-out mount, and
an ideal setting to many wood en-
cravings, as it gives such value to
the blacks and whites of the print,
in the same way that a photograph
gains by dark, dull mount.