Idea 6-Memorial Shadowbox

The daughter of a former educator and alderman from North Chicago brought in a box full of memorabilia from her late father that she wanted assembled into a collage. What was especially challenging was that he had a hobby: Glass Blowing, and that she wanted us to incorporate a glass animal he'd made into the montage. We had a number of photos, brochures, newspaper articles and testimonial literature from his funeral. In addition, we had to incorporate his safety glasses he used when glass blowing. We worked out a grouping that made visual sense,with the largest item in the center and the other items orbiting this photo montage she had created. The glass creation went top and center on its own platform. We had to wire it in place with 6 lb. test monofilament fishing line, so that is could be displayed vertically. We did the same for every other artifact, mounting them on a platform of the same burgundy suede and then cutting an outside bevel to expose the white core.

The whole project was mounted on a fabric and board covered wooden strainer and inset into a 6" deep plexi box. It could have been 5" deep, but we did not want to take the chance that the glass object would rub against the plexi box. We considered other types of mounts that would allow the glass creation to be held in place by an acrylic stalk or a little L-shaped shelf. Both would have worked well, but what we used turned out just fine. The plexi box was fabricated for us by Gemini Moulding. We did all the rest.

Shown below are two other images. One is a closeup of the glass creature we lashed down, while the other is a side view of the whole box displayed vertically.