Framing My Monkey

With the Monkey painting done, I need to devise a way to showcase it.

I've already decided on using my Suliao Xuan Ban technique, despite the fact that the paper was more like a felt than semi-translucent.  I didn't want the paper to be rectangular.  I wanted a more casual feel.  I wanted a narrow border of gold color for the painting, promoting the regal festivity of celebrating the year of the monkey, in spirit at least.  I would build a wide border frame for it using 4 inch boards.

At first I was going to give my painting a round shape.  But then I  balked at the idea of a round shaped painting in a heavy square frame.  My compromise was to round off the corners of the square painting. 

I didn't want to use scissors to trim my painting in this instance.  I wanted a more organic feel of torn edges.

I wet the line where I wanted the paper to be trimmed with my brush and allow the water to soak in, such that the paper can be torn along that wet trail.

The result was amazing!  It had the feel of hand made paper!

I couldn't find any gold color sheets from the local craft stores, so I made my own.

I picked up some two and one-half inch wide gold glitter ribbon from X'mas fire sale and cut them into lengths.  My idea was to line them up side by side to form a sheet of golden glitter paper.

I used masking tape as an adhesive backing to secure my gold ribbon

here is the finished sheet of gold glitter paper made with ribbons

Then the trimmed painting was laid on top of the glitter paper to tailor for size

My original design was to trim the glitter backing a tad wider than the painting, thus forming a gold border.  I wanted to do that so when I employed the Suliao Xuan Ban mounting method, I would have a clear border around the sandwich, to make the painting appear like a float.

I finally decided against it.  Partly because I was lazy and didn't want to do the extra work, but also this set-up seemed too removed from tradition.  The set-up now involved placing the painting on top of the plastic and the glitter backing behind the plastic.  The thickness of the plastic gave the painting a hint of a float.  I was fighting my own ghosts from yesteryear again.

Instead I scraped off some glitter from the ribbon and sprinkled that on the painting.  That transformation was amazing.  Now the work looked orthodox and hip at the same time!  It just felt right.

I built my frame using poplar.  At first I was going to paint it Chinese Red but it might be too ostentatious for this painting.  I kept it naked and used clear satin urethane as a sealant.

I liked it a lot.