
220 S. Wabash Ave. Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 431-9588
(312) 431-9588
Fish Fossils Shadowbox
Fish Fossils Framed Fabulously
A client of ours brought in some fossils of prehistoric fish that were preserved in layers of limestone, and she wanted them framed together in a shadowbox frame. It brought back memories of when my brothers and I would go fossil hunting and have shoe boxes of fossils and rocks under our beds, trading them like baseball cards.
Here's the design that our shop manager, Dana, came up with:
The frame is a Larson-Juhl 227517 Ansley Coffee Brown Cap 3/4" wide, made to a size 8 x 20 3/4. The box, itself, is made from Bainbridge 4097 Camel Linen fabric.The fossils were mounted using a custom rig fabricated from piano wire and heat-shrink tubing. The piano wire is stiff enough to hold its shape when bent and the heat shrink tubing is made from polyolefin, a plastic that is archival and stable and o.k. to have come in contact with your art or items being framed. 2 wires were used in an "X" shaped configuration, with the intersection of the two being sewn down tightly to a piece of mat board cut smaller than the fossils. Then, several inches away from the intersection of each wire, each of the 4 arms were sewn down a bit looser to allow for flexing. It's a technique that we learned from James Miller, MCPF, who gave seminars at the West Coast Art and Frame Show that both Dana and I have attended (and he wrote a great book that shows some of these techniques). Our thanks to Jim for his kind guidance.
The glass used was Artglass Water White Anti-Reflective glass, so as to not obscure the details of the fossils with any reflection. We love framing stuff like this! It is challenging and fun to do.
Framing designed and executed by Dana L. Fisher, CPF
Images shown by kind permission of our client.
A client of ours brought in some fossils of prehistoric fish that were preserved in layers of limestone, and she wanted them framed together in a shadowbox frame. It brought back memories of when my brothers and I would go fossil hunting and have shoe boxes of fossils and rocks under our beds, trading them like baseball cards.
Here's the design that our shop manager, Dana, came up with:
The frame is a Larson-Juhl 227517 Ansley Coffee Brown Cap 3/4" wide, made to a size 8 x 20 3/4. The box, itself, is made from Bainbridge 4097 Camel Linen fabric.The fossils were mounted using a custom rig fabricated from piano wire and heat-shrink tubing. The piano wire is stiff enough to hold its shape when bent and the heat shrink tubing is made from polyolefin, a plastic that is archival and stable and o.k. to have come in contact with your art or items being framed. 2 wires were used in an "X" shaped configuration, with the intersection of the two being sewn down tightly to a piece of mat board cut smaller than the fossils. Then, several inches away from the intersection of each wire, each of the 4 arms were sewn down a bit looser to allow for flexing. It's a technique that we learned from James Miller, MCPF, who gave seminars at the West Coast Art and Frame Show that both Dana and I have attended (and he wrote a great book that shows some of these techniques). Our thanks to Jim for his kind guidance.
The glass used was Artglass Water White Anti-Reflective glass, so as to not obscure the details of the fossils with any reflection. We love framing stuff like this! It is challenging and fun to do.
Framing designed and executed by Dana L. Fisher, CPF
Images shown by kind permission of our client.





