A wooden carved Rococo mirror frame | Large wooden rococo style mirror | Carved and Gilded mirror over a chimney | Architectural woodcarving

Carving a Rococo mirror frame |
 Patrick Damiaens, ornamental woodcarver

Carving a Rococo style mirror in wood

Wooden mirror for above a mantelpiece 

Gilded Rococo mirror frame

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We always start with a design, my creation of a Rococo mirror frame was based on an example made in polyester. This polyester copy had been hanging in my client's living room for 25 years. 

If you think long term, polyester is not a good investment, it hasn't had a long life, small and medium sized parts and pieces broke off from the mirror for quite some time now, the whole Rococo mirror was actually falling apart, and becoming sprinkly. 

So it was time to replace it and the only option was for the customer to make an (improved) copy of the polyester model.

It is always nice to be able to make a nice design, this Rococo mirror is meant as decoration for a marble mantelpiece, sometimes you can see this kind of mirrors in a wooden trumeau, this one is about 2 meters high and 120 wide and intended for a house in the Netherlands. 

Rococo is one of the more difficult styles to reproduce. Horizontal lines are almost non-existent, they are replaced by delicate curves, long drawn or pulled acanthusleaf motifs and many rocailles motifs merge into one another. Asymmetry is the strong point of this style. 

The effect is capricious, marvelous, captivating and enchanting. It is a style that appeals more to the senses, less to the intellect and emphasizes beauty over content.

Placing a drawing on the wood 

The preparation of the lime wood construction of the mirror, the sawing and the various operations with the router has taken a lot of time. Accuracy is important in every phase at this stage and that starts with transferring the drawing of the Rococo mirror to lime paper, by means of carbonless paper or hand film, the design of the Rococo mirror is transferred to the wood. 

Remember this drawing is very important and you should definitely check it carefully (on lime paper and on the wood) to make sure that all the lines of the design are present. 

Even a not unimportant..., a bad design or drawing can only lead to a bad end result. All stages in this phase of the creation are linked to each other, if you forget something or if you prepare something badly, this will have consequences at a later stage. 

The four separate parts are glued to an MDF board, between the wood of the mirror and the MDF board is a newspaper or ordinary paper glued, this will ensure that after finishing the cutting work the part of the mirror is easily detached from the MDF board.

Practical mounting

The carving of the ornaments happens in this case with the drawing and the polyester example on the workbench. With an altimeter we take crucial measurements on the original and transfer these reference heights to the lime wood. 

The large frame is cut first and then serves as a reference for and Rococo design of the ornaments, these ornaments have specific names, such as rocaille, acanthus leaf motif, agraphe, etc.... Each stage in the carving of an ornament is important but we start with the rough shaping of the whole and gradually refine it, until we are satisfied with design and finishing. 

When the visible front of each part, in this case four pieces, is ready we turn the piece around, put it in a blanket and start cutting the back, the excess wood behind the ornament is removed and the Rococo ornament begins to come loose visually, you look sideways no longer against a mass of wood, and all attention goes to the ornament itself. What remains are the four transitions of the parts, making sure that mouldings and ornaments merge smoothly into one another.

This Rococo mirror frame will still be provided with gold leaf, but that's another specialisation that will be done by another craftsman.

Rococo

The rococo style is a European style period that reached its peak between 1730 and 1760. The name rococo is derived from the French word rocaille: an asymmetrical shell motif that was widely used in the mid-18th century on furniture, doors, panelling, etc.. 

The word rocaille goes back to the French words roc (rock) and coquilles (shells) and indicates that it is mainly a decorative style.

Rococo originated in France as a reaction to the severe classicist baroque of around 1700. 

The subsequent Rococo style is characterised by grace, elegance, charm, wit and playful eroticism. The style remained popular for over seventy years in the eighteenth century. After that, the style of neoclassicism gradually made its appearance and the rococo style disappeared.

As many styles have received their names in art history, the name rococo was initially intended to be mocking. The word refers to decorative shell shapes from the Baroque period. 

Despite the many commissions, the Rococo artists were severely criticised. Opponents felt that their works of art were not serious enough in terms of content. Moreover, it was thought to be too much in the service of the decadent upper class. Therefore, the Rococo was mainly regarded as a decorative style. 

WIKI 

Rococo, less commonly  Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colors, sculpted molding, and trompe l'oeil frescoes to create surprise and the illusion of motion and drama. It first appeared in France and Italy in the 1730s and spread to Central Europe in the 1750s and 1760s. It is often described as the final expression of the Baroque movement.

The Rococo style began in France in the first part of the 18th century in the reign of Louis XV as a reaction against the more formal and geometric Style Louis XIV. It was known as the style rocaille, or rocaille style. It soon spread to other parts of Europe, particularly northern Italy, Bavaria, Austria, other parts of Germany, and Russia. It also came to influence the other arts, particularly sculpture, furniture, silverware and glassware, painting, music, and theatre.

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