Stourbridge Open Studios: Jamie Hubbard Creative Woodwork

So, this ones about me..

A new business, My first 'proper' workshop..

Sue Parry stopped by a couple of weeks ago and asked if she could commission a photo frame.

"The only thing is" she says "I need to take it to LA next Wednesday"

Out comes a blank sheet of paper and we're off...designing the frame that's going to be flying through the sky over the pond, before the finish has had plenty of time to cure...

Sue and I are going through all sorts of ideas.. then "I'll be back in a minute."

In she walks with her laptop, on Flickr going through some photos of the furniture and home of the person who will be receiving the frame... brilliant, this really tells me a lot about this guy, what he likes and dislikes...

So back to the drawing board, and it's then I say," why don't I just make it like the inside of my cabinet door, I think that would suit.."

And so it started, I kept doing ten minutes here and there, until I got to the final part when I stuck with it until it was finished.

So here's the Sycamore, Maple & Ebony Cabinet.

This cabinet won the Bronze Medal at Sandown Park WoodWorker Show in 1992

this is the inside of the door shape..

love the angles

Here's the lock mechanism and the corner 'key' is in Ebony,

this adds strength and support to the corner joints

Back to the drawing board, within minutes we've sorted the design, and now we're onto the sizing.

Out comes the cardboard, I cut up the card to the size of the photo, and start drawing around it until Sue's happy. "There we go, done".

Not quite, the Maple is only at 14% moisture. So I rough cut the Maple and took it home for a couple of days. Sitting on top of the wardrobe, then after each time I worked it, it was back home in the warmth easily down to 8-9 % before it was jointed.

This is the mock up on the wall..

Patterns and Maple cut...

The inside edges were cleaned up before assembly,

and the outside were done after the frame was dry...

Here's one joint from behind..after the 5 coats of Danish Oil were dry.

It really started moving along now, I fitted the Ebony keys, rebated the back to take the glass, fitted some mount board to the photograph and some board for the back. Note the use of the kidney plates to hold all of the parts into the rebate. I like to use a hole for the method of hanging, that way the frame will sit tight against a wall, and I stamped the back panel with my JH metal stamp.

But..before I fitted the back panel..