Most everything I do is shadow boxed, mostly African wood carvings and masks. Although I'll be changing my concentration to sports memorabilia, more specifically, mini football helmets, baseballs, hockey pucks and mini basketballs, all with an accompanying picture of an athlete in the respective sport.
Anyway, I take select pine or poplar, route it, miter it, paint it and join it to create my boxes. With the masks that exceed four inches in depth I generally leave the face open and use grasscloth mat board, but I like Andrews work with the acrylic.
Oftentimes, people don't like to have a wood box of significant depth hanging on their walls. It's not very attractive. But I haven't had any complaints with the helmet boxes I've done so far. I've been using the poplar which has a nice wood grain and I make sure the paint is applied evenly without streaks or runs.
Since I'm still home-based and ninety percent of what I do is shadow boxes this method works for me. But I doubt most gallery or frame shop owners have the time to fool with the process I use.
By the way, I use screw eyes to secure the box to whatever frame I use. And if I'm not using a mat on the front, I route the front of the box to fit flush in the rabbet of the frame.
Don
