Pagoda Tile Frame

We’ve got several tiles laying around that I’ve promised to frame. I’ve really liked Dan’s frames, so I browsed through my favorites and found Dan’s pagoda frame. I was waiting for something to dry/cure, so I thought I’d rip one out real quick.

Ironically, I had just commented on someone else’s blog about a tapering jig and found myself without one. There are four tapered cuts on this frame, so I roughed it out on the bandsaw and used a little known trick to set one end of the piece down onto the outfeed side of the jointer, then push it through as normal. This magically produces a tapered edge.

I designed this thing as I went along. The proportions, angles, half-lapped joints, etc. The tile is Motawi’s “Montana del Oro” (Mountain of Gold), which is a very nice park just outside of San Luis Obispo, CA. It’s a great place to hike. The artist is Yoshiko Yamamoto. We’ve got a lot of her other stuff too, which I still need to frame.

The wood is QSWO, and the finish is TransTint “Dark Mission Brown”, a coat of one pound cut amber shellac, and General Finishes “Antique Walnut” gel stain, then topped it off with Arm-R-Seal. It made the perfect, dark, rich, antique craftsman finish. I may very well use this recipe on the entire dining room set (i.e. table, chairs, sideboard, etc.).

-- You can't control the wind, but you can trim your sails