How we create a shadow box: Part 2

If you missed it last month, we started telling Kim’s story. If you need to, you can catch up here. 

At the end of our post in January we were ready to actually start construction on Kim’s shadowbox. With Kim’s keepsakes, her choices in framing and matting and, most importantly, her story, we got going on building something that would knock her daughter’s socks off.

We started by building the mini-frames that would showcase some of the smaller items. Some of the smaller pieces of jewelry and even the small snapshots might feel lost and unimportant if they were just mounted beside the dress. We created several mini-frames to help give these smaller items the importance they deserved.

We actually accomplished this a couple of different ways. For some of the pictures we actually created a small frame by cutting a rectangle out of the same matting that we used for the entire project. Then we mounted the pictures inside the rectangles and, in turn, mounted those frames three dimensionally, so that they appear to hover over the mat.

For some of the smaller pieces, we took another small mounting board and actually ran a frame molding around the outside, but rather than have the mat behind the frame, we set the mat flush with the top surface of the molding. This created the focus and importance that the pieces deserved, while adding a spatial dimension that helped to bring more interest and life to the overall piece.

We finished up by mounting the remaining items, such as the bracelets and the dress itself directly to the mat board. It’s important to note that we only use non-destructive methods for mounting these items. The adhesives, the glass and even the mat itself are all specially formulated to make sure that the items they display remain in the same condition in which they were first mounted. If at some point in the future, Kim or her daughter or even her great-granddaughter want to remove anything from this shadow box, not only will the items be in excellent condition, but they can all be removed without damage to any individual item.

We know know how much your memories and keepsakes mean to you because we know how much ours mean to us. And we made sure the all of Kim’s memories were not only displayed beautifully, but protected for future generations.

Next month we’ll finish up the story by giving you Kim’s reaction and explaining how to hang and care for your own shadow boxes.