framing silver

[Rosalyn]

A customer brought in a silver place setting, knife, fork, salad fork, spoon, soup spoon. She wants to frame them. When we visited before she brought them in I mentioned doilies maybe for added interest, texture. She brought a doilie made by the owner of the silver. Any ideas on how I might go about arranging, mounting, framing . . . She wants a place setting done for each of her grandchildren done for Christmas (yikes)! My main concern is securing them to whatever I use for backing and knowing they will be secure. Any one ever attempted this before?

[Rosalyn]

ALSO, won't the pieces tarnish over time? Can I prevent tarnishing?

[Rebecca]

Hi Rosalyn -

Sounds like a fun project.

You could use the silversafe products for the backboard etc.

http://www.conservationresources.com/news/newsarticles1.shtml

But you would also need to seal the rabbet, and any other wood, with metal tape or at least a couple of coats of water based urethane. Oak is bad for emitting tarnishing compounds.

Also, the framing package would need to be sealed tightly to prevent outside polluted air from getting in. Something like Hugh's Marvaseal system would take care of it all, or at least use a Coroplast backboard sealed with metal tape.

The doily will be fine, but wash any new fabrics you might use to remove sizing, and no wool (contains sulfer, so can tarnish).

I'm sure the others will have good attachment suggestions.

Rebecca