During a long awaited vacation in Eastern Canada with my wife, we re-discovered an artist we had both forgotten about, and fell in love with her story and her art. Maude Lewis was from the Nova Scotia and despite a rare crippling disease of "Juvenile Arthritis" she, along with her husband, managed to eek out a living from her paintings and artwork way back in the 1950s era.
We picked up one piece of her art and the Nova Scotia Art Gallery store that my wife already had a place in mind for before we got home. All I had to do was make a picture frame ... easy, or so I thought ... not so.
What I found out about Maude was there her husband Everett, would sometimes make picture frames for her art, but I was unable to find any verifiable examples of what these might have looked like. Know what I did of the Everett, all I could do is put together what I call a representation of what he might have done as a "some-time handyman" with limited tools and materials.
Below is the picture we selected and the frame I made, and my buddy Stan in the art department cut the matte for me.
I did have some old weather wood on hand that I thought would be suitable for this frame but it was a limited amount. Turns out is was quite rough and a neighbor who gave me the wood (knowing my love for old weathered wood) never did tell me where it came from. After examining it, I am pretty sure it was old pallet wood, weathered, dry and rough ... real rough, no 2 boards were the same thickness, board edges super rough, not really suitable for a frame ... so I would need to cut "veneers" for the edges of the frame.
Because the boards were bowed, I needed first to make them flat by laminating some strong, Oak to the back of the pallet wood, AFTER I get all the boards the same thickness.
I want to throw in a couple of Maude Lewis Items here ..
First, a movie was made a few years ago of her life, I have watched it twice so far, you can often find it on one of "stream channels" like Netflix, Prime, Tubi or more, it's titled MAUDIE (see picture below) here is the movie poster, Staring Ethan Hawke and Sally Hawkins ... a lovely movie of the live of Maude Lewis ...
Of interest to woodworkers, below is a picture of the home that Maude and Everett lived in for 40(?) years, 12 feet by 13 feet !!
This building was uprooted and move INSIDE the Art Gallery ... fascinating to see her actual home and where she lived.
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Took me a while to figure out how to do this without destroying the "Patina" of the weathered wood either hand planing or in the planer. Then I remembered, I could use my Planing Jig and lay it face down on the jig. Some of the board moved slightly as I planed them but face surfaces were not damaged.
Next I needed to laminate the Oak strips I cut to the backs of the weathered wood, leaving nice bright fresh wood on the sides ... that would need to be covered with the veneer strips.
Below I am cutting the frame sides to width, the same set-up was used in cutting the veneers, which were stripped from the face side of the weather wood pieces that were extra to my needs.
Below is an example of the wood frame sides and the veneers I would be pairing up.
Below a still photo of cutting the veneers. The pallet wood at this point was STILL uneven, but it would be bearable to work with.
The Roller Featherboard was an idea I came up with years ago that would be useful for cutting wood without possibly damaging the texture or patina of the wood. I had forgotten what a great jig this was. Made from old roller blade wheels which keep the wood tight against the fence and roll the wood through so as not to damage it ... a very useful jig for this job.
Below you can see the laminated oak on the bottom and the veneer applied to the side of the frame. The reason you can see the oak is because that is where the rabbet would later be cut to accommodate the picture frame glass (if we decide to use some) and the carboard picture backing.
The extension jig adapter for my mitre gauge is very handy for cut picture frame sides. Easy to get exact lengths each time.
And finally, my squaring jig, I just put some extra piece of weather wood on it to help show the edges of the jig better, this is one of the handiest jigs I own, use if for ANYTHING I would to assemble square, picture frames, doors, boxes, door frames, drawers ... and the list goes on.
And I forgot to mention, while on vacation I took a day off to go and visit Rob Cosman who I met many years ago but had not seen for many years, got to spend a couple of hours or so with him and one of the highlights of our journey.
You can check out Rob's YouTube and Website here .... robcosman.com
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