Stem Cell Photo Presentation Frame


We were approached by one of our long time clients, the University of Chicago Medical and Biological Sciences Department (MBSD), who interfaces with philanthropic donors. Usually, we end up framing items for them as thank-you gifts for their patrons. In this case, we were asked to put together a frame to present to a prospective donor to help fund their Stem Cell Research program. Shown framed, below, is a photo micro-graph of a number of man-made stem cells that the department is working on. Knowing how important this work is and, by the very notion that these cells are worth more than gold, itself, we decided to use gold to showcase them.

The frame used is a Larson-Juhl "Musee" collection frame #L459630, about 1 1/2" wide covered in 23 karat watergilded gold leaf. The leaf is applied over a black bole, or undercoating, and then lightly distressed to show the black through a little bit. Gold leaf, when pounded very thin, is nearly translucent to begin with. You can, actually, see where the sheets of gold leaf overlap each other as they are applied and glued in place with a "sizing" before it is burnished to a shine.

We used the matching 1/4" wide gold fillet, #L108630, to surround the photograph to give it more importance. Here is how the total 5 3/16" mat borders measure up; The top 4" layer is a Crescent 67114 Carbon Black Suede with a black core (we used the black core version as a white bevel would be too distracting). The gold fillet fits the reverse bevel on the top mat opening. Below that layer, we have another layer of black core suede matting showng 3/4". Just below that and only showing 3/16" is a layer of Crescent 7567 Violet linen. The overall matted size (or glass size) is 18 1/8" x 20".

We used Tru-Vue Museum Glass to show every little detail and sharp color without any danger of it fading. We had a little over a week to finish this project, but it worked out beautifully and the client was very happy with the framing.

Framing designed and executed by Brian D. Flax, CPF
Photographs by kind permission of J. Trevino, University of Chicago MBSD Donor Relations