Artist's Woodshop   Stow, Massachusetts

Panel cross bracing for superior strength

 

 

   

Cradled Panels:

AW returns this year with expanded panel and frame offerings

We use only select Russian Baltic Birch plywood made from furniture grade Nordic Birch hardwood for the superior dense and uniform birch wood characteristic of the Baltic regions.  Tighter grain from growth in colder climates produces wood with superior uniformity, strength and resistance to warping that is so important to the Encaustic artist.

Much more expensive, specially imported multi-layered plywood produces the highest quality professional art panels. Besides their beauty, our panels provide a surface appreciated by artists who want to control their artistic process with the best materials possible.

Floating Hardwood frames

Floating Finish Frames:
Maple, Cherry, Birch and Walnut are valued by museums and fine art galleries for the color and texture that ages with elegance.  Furniture grade hardwood is cut to your specifications, miter jointed and glued to provide clean edges without nails or surface holes.

The frames are then finished with the highest quality natural finish sealer, highlighting wood grain and color providing a lifetime of radiant beauty.

MP with Birch frame ready to ship-after break

Monster Panels: 
Large custom 100% Russian Baltic Birch painting panels, sizes up to 96”, that can be shown as diptych, triptych etc.

Multiple Monster Panels to be shown grouped are braced and pre-drilled for easy transportation and assembly. Joining hardware is supplied.

  
Geometrics:
 

Hexagonal Panels

Unique hex panels or other shapes made to your specifications are available upon request.

Hex panels for individual show or grouped as an installation are available in all sizes.

  

Bees & Birch: Naturally!

 

Control your process - from the ground up!

*** Conference Pick-Up Special ***

Get the exact sizes you want...

Order now and pay / pick up at the conference...

Get the Conference discount and save on shipping or arrange shipping at the conference...

Visit www.artwoodshop.com  for complete product & pricing information.

Contact Richard, the panel man, at:   artwoodshop@comcast.net

with questions, for additional information and price quotes for custom:

Small, Mid-sized or large “Monster” Panels

Hardwood Floating Frames

Hex panels

Pour panels

Custom size & shape panels

 

Bees & Hexagons

Monday, February 13, 2012

Bees & Hexagons

Ever wonder why bees use hexagons to make beehives?

Bees want a strong structure that encloses their precious wax in the most optimum way.

 

Sounds like what Encaustic Artists want.

Announcing Hexagonal Painting Panels!

Side     Painting     Similar to   Price

            Area           Area of

3.5”     32 sqin       6x6             $9.00

5”        65 sqin       8x8           $12.00

6”        93 sqin      10x10        $15.00

7.5”   146 sqin      12x12        $19.00

Any profile (off-the-wall) size.

Email Richard at artwoodshop@comcast.net for further information.

Why Baltic Birch?

Why Baltic Birch?

Today’s artists are offered numerous painting panel products. How you choose what to buy depends upon your artistic expression and priorities.

Robert Genn’s Twice-Weekly Letters states “The better quality painting panels are those which use birch in all the plies, the inner plies and back as well as just the face of the panel. Generally speaking, the more plies in a given thickness of plywood, the better the quality.

Birch has a much smoother, non-splintering surface than Luan and does not chip like Masonite. You can really work with the surface, I paint and sand and build up a lot of layers. I briefly tired Poplar plywood, but it warped terribly, even when I put backing braces on it, never again with Poplar!”

Birch is preferred for it's smooth almost non porous surface texture. Alternative man made composite panels are loaded with acids and chemical vapors that seep through several layers of gesso. After a few years the painting surface is highly likely to be compromised.
Encaustic paint is best used on a rigid surface that is absorbent and heat resistant.

Russian birch plywood is a 100% birch product, a single wood-type plywood makes for a more stable product.

The grain in birch is tight and closed rather than full of large open pores like the Luan and mahogany used for door skins. This makes surface preparation much, much easier and faster. Fewer coats of sealer or gesso and thus fewer sanding sessions are required to fill and smooth the surface.

The highest quality Birch plywood is produced in Finland and Russia. What sets the veneer from these countries apart is the consistency of surface being virtually free of gaps and voids. This disparity cannot be solely attributed to quality milling; but also that the Baltic birch is indigenous to the northern Baltic regions and is generally healthier in that area. This means that the wood used to create the birch veneer in these countries is less prone to wood bugs and other ailments that can befall Baltic birch trees in more temperate climates.

The lack of voids gives Baltic birch tremendous strength, and also presents a very attractive side profile without the gaps and voids common in many other types of plywood.

Contact Richard “the panel man” at artistwoodshop@comcast.net
for information & pricing on:
Small Panels
Mid-size panels
Monster panels