A Frame-Maker’s Journal
Updates and reflections on our work and mission to revive the art and craft of framing pictures. Here I'll show you new jobs we're especially proud of and keep you up on what's going on at the Gallery, as well as discuss topics germane to our work, including handcraft and work generally, the place of art, and ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement (especially its greatest leaders, John Ruskin and William Morris).
I hope you’ll subscribe (see the form in the left column) or at least check back often. And I welcome your comments!
—Tim Holton
Framing the New Year
A quick post to wish all well this coming year—with a lovely message from the great California naturalist John Muir, via printmaker Yoshiko Yamamoto: May your new year offer wonderful new worlds framed with the beauty of nature, including many, many beautiful and thri... continue reading.
Framing Christmas
This post is just a little Christmas greeting, featuring this lovely painting, “A Christmas Carol,” by the great Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The piece just this month surfaced from a private collection. I learned about it from the wonderfu... continue reading.
Framing—and Seeing—Birge Harrison
Birge Harrison (1854-1929) was born in Pennsylvania and was active in the northeast at the turn of the last century. Years ago I stumbled on his 1909 book, Landscape Painting, so was excited to get an inquiry a couple of years ago from the Figge Art Museum about re-fram... continue reading.
Just Launched!!!
Three and a half years ago I started tinkering with WordPress to see if I could build myself an online catalog. A year or so later, Matt Jalbert, to whom I’ll forever be grateful for dragging Holton Studio into the digital age with the website we launched in 2010,... continue reading.
Hanging at the American Museum of Natural History
I’m at the shop today in Emeryville, but the three of us at Holton Studio are also hanging in the American Museum of Natural History and taking part in the reopening of the North American Mammal Hall for which we produced dozens of hand carved oak frames as well a... continue reading.
Mirror with Carved Medallion
Here’s a recently commissioned mirror. The design is based on that of a pair of frames I made years ago for two leather panels by CR Ashbee. This mirror is a horizontal adaption of that design, featuring at the top center a carved medallion with two pine cones. Th... continue reading.
Framing Gustave Baumann Prints
Over the years we’ve had the pleasure to frame quite a few prints by master American printmaker Gustave Baumann (1881-1971). Here are three just finished: Gustave Baumann, “Early Spring, Brown County” Gustave Baumann, “Rio Pecos” Gustave Ba... continue reading.
Framing Thaddeus Welch—Carved Corners
Had the privilege of framing a Thaddeus Welch (1844-1919) oil painting a while back (here). Took a very different approach with this one, playing up the wonderful tradition of Taos frames. Trevor Davis had made a corner sample similar to this, and when the painting came... continue reading.
Framing a Benjamin Williams Leader Landscape
Just finished framing this spectacular 1875 Alpine landscape oil painting by British artist Benjamin Williams Leader (1831 – 1923), titled “The Wetterhorn from Rosenlaui.” At 72″ x 60″ it has a powerful presence (see last photo for scale). ... continue reading.