Idea 4-See-through Diploma Frame

A Swiss client, in town for only a few days, had a certificate that he wanted to bring back home with him framed and needed it fairly quickly. He indicated that he wanted the certificate to float between two pieces of glass and wanted it to be surrounded by a very thin gold mat or fillet.While framing this way is not considered archival, this did not appear to be a consideration. Our frame is by Larson-Juhl from their "Zen" collection, a 1 1/4" matte gold (#411432),

inside of which we stacked a Larson-Juhl silver rope enhancer (# 181112). However, in order to hide the framers points that were to hold the two, sandwiched sheets of glass in place, we cut an etched matted gold mat, just wide enough to fit under the lip of the enhancer, but able to hide the framers points (see the detail photo). Glass used was True-Vue AR glass, which appears almost invisible.

We used a few very small bits of acid-free 3M ATG tape to anchor the certificate in place on the rear sheet of glass, cut a very thin mat of the same matboard we used for the outer mat, and ATG'd it to the glass. It helped also hold the edge of the document in place. We then carefully taped the edges of the glass to each other to create a tight package and pointed it all into the frame. We had to cut a narrow mat with a reverse bevel made from 8-ply mat board to add thickness behind the glass. Without it, we could not have pointed the glass and mat in place. Because our computerized mat cutter would not cut a mat so thin out of 8 ply, we made a mat with a larger border and cut it down to fit the opening. We used 2 D-ring hangers for hanging, since wire would be visible in the open glass areas. We, then, packed it and overnighted it to Madison, Wisconsin in time for the client to take with to Switzerland.

Images courtesy of Dr.Lehman. Designed and executed by Brian Flax.