"Framing" my Mother... Part 1

When we moved my mother out of her house into the assisted living center, we had some antique dealers come out ot the house and make offeres on her antiques. Consistently, each of them asked about a frame that had a full length photo of my mother in it. The framed photo has been around since before my birth so was always a part off our lives. I figured since it was such an odd size, my brothers would undstand that ordering a custom frame of that size to replace the frame would cost much more than any of the dealers were offering for the original frame.

I got a call while out buying packing tape or something that my mother was extremely upset that my brother had taken out her photo and was going to sell the frame for about $100. We took care of the issue but the picture never was put back in the frame and the frame was broken and in many pieces after it was moved a few times to different family members homes. I finally wrote an email looking for it a few months ago. The picture was wrapped and mostly safe. It did get a few tears in the bottom which I filled in with a black Sharpie that worked well. I know that isn't the best way to repair a torn photo but it has worked on a few old photos on the black area. I colored it in and then use my finger to wipe off the shine and it meshes in quite well.

The frame was in pieces and as I transported it to my home many hours away, it was even in more pieces and by the time I moved it around and got to glueing and screwing it together again, it was even in more pieces. So, last week it got glued and then to make it more secure, I screwed in the pieces from the back.

There were chips off the paint everywhere and I had to fill in the cracks and gaps. I got some creme paints and put dabs of them on the side to see which was the closest to the color of the frame. I then painted all the chips with the closest creme color. Then, it had some gold edges so I matched the gold up in the same way. There was a brown wash over the whole frame and that was the hardest part. I ended up mixing, mustard brown, medium brown and some black to get the closest I could to the wash color. I then got the paint runny and washed the entire frame.

If you look up close, you can see where it was repaired. From a few feet away, it looks great. When I gave it to my mother this week, she cried saying that she never thought she would see that frame and picture again.