Make a photo string frame

Mapping it out

First, create a model of your frame. I made mine 11″ × 15-1/2″ to hold eight photos. The frame pieces were 1-1/4″ wide and 7/8″ thick. Before deciding on the final dimensions, I drew the frame on a piece of plywood and placed the eight photos inside it, arranging them with an appropriate amount of space between them, adjust­ing the size of the frame to fit the eight photos nicely. Adjust the size of your frame to give you the inside dimensions and visual pro­portions you’d like.

Breakout

I started with a piece of maple 53″ long and 1-1/2″ “ wide, which gave us a few inches extra to work with. There’s also nothing wrong with obtaining the four frame members from a shorter, yet wider, piece of lumber. I broke out four pieces to use for the frame; two 11″ long and two 15-1/2″ long, adding one inch to each piece to leave room for error. Once this was done, I jointed and planed the pieces so they were flat and to the final thickness.

Rip the pieces to their final width of 1-1/4″.

Bevel the frame ends

You’ll now need to cut both ends of each piece on a 45° bevel, ensuring the length of the two opposing pieces are identical.

To do this, start by cutting bevels on one end of each frame piece. Next, mark the desired length on one of the side pieces, set up a stop block and cut the two side pieces to length. Following that, mark the desired overall length on the top piece and set up a stop block. Make the two cuts on the top and bottom frame pieces.

Crazy corners

Simple bevel joints are nice, but since I wanted to add a unique detail to this special frame, we decided to have some fun with the corner joints. There are lots of options, but I took inspira­tion from one of my dad’s favourite Canadian woodworkers, John Glendinning, and created what looked like a gap on the four corner joints, before adding colour and texture to all four joints.

I played around with some scrap to give us an idea of how it would look, then we determined the amount of gap we wanted in the corners. I then turned to the four frame members and marked a line 1/4″ away from each bevelled corner, on the front edge. Next, I marked the curve on the outer face of each workpiece using a French curve. I added a couple of pieces of masking tape to the French curve, then marked two lines on the tape, so I could consis­tently align the French curve template and draw the curve on all the workpieces. While marking the frame members, I made sure the gap was being marked towards the front edge, not the rear edge.

Sand the gap

After I labelled the sides, I used a disc sander to add the curve into each of the bevels, using a 30° angle. It’s easy to remove too much material with a disc sander, so move slowly and try not to sand beyond the line. Check to make sure all the joints look good and resand them, if necessary.

Decorate the open joint

I brushed on two coats of royal blue milk paint to add colour to the small curved, visible surfaces of the bevel joints on all four cor­ners of the frame. You could also use just about any other type of paint for this.

Once the paint dried, I used a rotary tool to carefully add tex­ture to the curved surfaces. It’s crucial to be patient with this step, as going fast will cause the finished result to be messy. While I was using the rotary tool, I noticed that resting the edge of my hand on the workpiece was helpful for keeping the rotary tool steady and allowing me to leave a fairly even texture. If you leave the tool on the surface for too long, the surface starts to burn, which looks bad in the final product. Practicing on some scrap, and having lots of patience, will ensure the texture looks great.

Sand and ease

Sand the three visible surfaces of the pieces in your frame, taking care to not only remove all machine marks, but to also remove any blue paint that may have been applied where it shouldn’t have been. Finally, ease all four edges of each frame piece.

Screw eyes

A screw eye in each side will secure the end of each length of string, so four screw eyes were needed, in total. Working with our initial sketch, I marked the height of the screw eye pilot holes, ensuring they were centred on the width of the frame. For our frame, I positioned them 3/4″ from the top and 5-1/4″ from the bottom. After the pilot holes were marked, I drilled them using a drill press. A hand held drill would also work.

How to hang it

The bottom of the frame could be set on a surface, with its top resting against a wall, but I wanted the recipient to be able to hang this frame.

You could attach a picture frame clip to the rear edge of the top piece, but I decided on a more secure approach. My dad used the router table to rout a picture hanging slot in the back of the top piece for hanging the frame. You might want an experienced adult for this step. We adjusted the fence so the bit routed the picture frame groove in the centre of the rear edge of the top piece.

Assembly

I set out the frame pieces so their inner faces were down and with the mating edges butting together, then put a piece of tape across each joint, ensuring the corners were fairly tight together. Make sure to add a few layers of tape all across the width of the joint, as this will help bring the parts together, and also keep glue off the wood’s surface when you install the painted dowels.

I applied a light layer of glue on the joints first and then rubbed it in. Then, I applied a bit more glue to the joints. I wrapped all four pieces together to assemble the frame, added another piece of tape across the fourth joint and let the glue dry.

In the meantime…

The dowels I added serve two functions: to add strength to each corner joint and to add some spice to the design. Before doing any work on the dowels, or drilling holes in the corners of the frame, check the dowels you’re using fit into the hole you’re drilling. I used food preparation skewers made of bamboo, but standard dowel rods from a hardware store are also an option.
While the glue on the frame was drying, I cut the dowels to length. They were about 1-1/4″ long. I also cut a few extras, just in case they didn’t fit perfectly.

Chuck each dowel into the drill and use a sanding block to round one end of each dowel while the drill trigger is being pulled. Once they were rounded, I painted the rounded ends of each dowel with the same royal blue milk paint as we used for the curves, then set them aside to dry.

Drilling, again

Once the frame and paint had dried, I drilled the holes in the sides of the frame for the dowels to go into. Be sure to drill the holes through the masking tape used to hold the four frame joints together for gluing. If the tape isn’t where you want the holes to be, simply add more tape in that area. Also be sure to drill the holes deeper than the dowels are long, so you can fine-tune the amount that each dowel head will protrude above the surface of the frame during installation. You don’t want any of the dowels to bottom out in the holes. I used a drill press for this step in order to ensure the holes were straight, clean and deep enough.

Install the dowels

After I drilled, I tested to make sure the dowels fit into the holes. Some of them were too big to fit so I sanded them slightly, reducing their diameter. This is more easily done before applying glue to any of the surfaces. Both bamboo skewers and hardware store dowel rods aren’t always uniform in diameter.

I positioned dowels on the visible side of the joint, slightly offset, so they wouldn’t interfere with each other.

Once the holes were drilled, and I knew the dowels fit, I added some glue to the holes, a tiny bit of glue to the dowels and pressed them into the holes. Light hand pressure, followed by a few light taps with a small hammer if needed, should be enough to seat the dowels so their heads protrude slightly above the surfaces.

Final touches

Once the dowels were in, and the glue at least partially dry, I took the tape off and eased the edges. Removing the tape should remove any glue squeeze-out from when you installed the dowels. I removed any glue squeeze-out that remained and prepared for finishing.

Finishing it up

I applied three coats of oil-based aerosol spray polyurethane, sanding between coats. It takes some time to dry properly but offers good protection.
Once the finish was dry, I put in the screw eyes to hold the string. I tied the string through the screw eyes and added the photos using colourful clothes pins. At this point it was ready to wrap. I wish my gift wrapping turned out as nicely as this great picture frame.