Colourmount has introduced plenty of new finishes and colours in recent years, all of which have had their own appeal for specific jobs and all of which have fired the imagination for use in particular jobs; but none have been able to match the wide spectrum of potential that the new pearlescent boards have brought. I had no difficulty in picking the subject matter when Slater Harrison asked me to use Centura Pearl mountboard in a framing job for this issue of In The Frame. As soon as I saw the delicate blend of shading and colour, I thought of a wedding subject. This pretty headdress, coupled with the photograph of the happy couple, fitted the bill perfectly. The shape, depth and colour of the headdress dictated the basic layout of the mounts and so I set about designing a box frame to accommodate it.

The headdress is circular in shape and so I decided on circular mounts for the photograph as well. I chose white Centura Pearl for the mounts, over violet and pink to pick out the colours of the flowers.

The mounts for the photo were cut and assembled, the photo was dry-mounted to woodpulp backing board and the four items fixed together using double sided tape.

Now the headdress was fixed in place around the bottom mount using craft wire. I pierced holes in the bottom mount at appropriate points, passed the craft wire through and twisted it together at the back.

Because of the depth of the headdress, it was obvious that some sort of box mount was going to have to be used, and initially I had intended to make a standard square box lined with the right colour. However, the circular shape had really taken my imagination, and so I decided that the box would have to be circular - a decision that, although effective, proved to be fairly time-consuming as well.

First of all, I cut the top mounts to suit the outside diameter of the headdress. I then decided on a diameter about 15mm bigger than the smallest aperture, and cut two circles of that size in two pieces of 2.2mm woodpulp.

The circumference was then worked out by the simple expedient of cutting a sheet length strip of mountboard, running it round the inside of the circular cutout and marking it where they met. I then cut one strip of violet board to this length, by 30mm wide, as this was the depth required to clear the flowers on the headdress. I also cut another strip of the same length but 25mm wide, as this is required to locate the two woodpulp circles.

Although the strips will bend to the circular shapes reasonably well, the job is made much easier if slits are cut at 10mm intervals across the reverse side, partway through the board; they will then bend easily to the circle. They were then fixed into one circular piece with wood glue.

The 25mm strip of mountboard was then fixed around the outside of this using double sided tape, and the second circular piece of woodpulp fitted on to this.

This assembly was then fixed over and around the headdress with double sided tape, using 5mm foamboard to space the outside edges.

The top mounts were added and fixed using the same method.

Glass was added and a hand-finished frame (made using Everest Frame Finishing Paints) was placed over the entire thing.

Although the moulding had a generous rebate depth, there was still 3mm protruding, so the assembly was held into the frame using pins tapped in at an angle before taping up.

As you can imagine, the bride and groom were delighted with this permanent reminder of their special day, which you can see on our stand at the Spring Fair.