Has anyone framed stained glass in a shadow box with lighting. The glass is 18 x 36 vertical. It is framed in a flat oak frame and I have ordered a deep oak shadowbox moulding. My customer wants to illuminate the stained glass. It will hang against a wall above her fireplace. Any suggestions. I thought about the rope neon lights since they are low voltage.
framing for stained glass
- Thread starter maureen
- Start date
Roxanne Langley
CGF, Certified Grumble Framer
Maureen,
Just did one of these this past fall and it turned out great. We chose a dark mahogony shadowbox moulding to match the colors in the stained glass. I painted the inside of the moulding with a flat white acrylic paint to help with the brightness of the light. Then there was a hole drilled at the bottom edge for the lightcord to pass through. The customer brought in an under the counter type of small fluorescent light that he purchased at Home Depot. On this particular piece I mounted the light on the inside bottom rail of the moulding, it seemed to light up the glass detail much better than if it had been on the top. Worked out so well that I contacted the local stain glass studio that he took the lessons from and am going to build them one for diplay.
Roxanne Langley
Spring, TX
Just did one of these this past fall and it turned out great. We chose a dark mahogony shadowbox moulding to match the colors in the stained glass. I painted the inside of the moulding with a flat white acrylic paint to help with the brightness of the light. Then there was a hole drilled at the bottom edge for the lightcord to pass through. The customer brought in an under the counter type of small fluorescent light that he purchased at Home Depot. On this particular piece I mounted the light on the inside bottom rail of the moulding, it seemed to light up the glass detail much better than if it had been on the top. Worked out so well that I contacted the local stain glass studio that he took the lessons from and am going to build them one for diplay.
Roxanne Langley
Spring, TX
Did a piece last year not for stained glass but for a matted translucent piece they wanted illuminated from behind. I think it was a batik. Framed it between two mats / two glass at front of deep shadow box moulding. The back panel was made of pegboard. I used plastic-encased rope light set as the light source and snaked it around on the pegboard, securing it at strategic points with twists of wire. The holes in the pegboard provided some air circulation to keep heat buiuldup to a minimum, and I put deep bumpers on all 4 corners to space it away from the wall a bit. It looked great when lighted. Even though these rope lights are pretty low wattage, they do build up a little bit of heat. I recommended that the customer leave it illuminated for only about 30 min. at a time, just to be on the safe side, although it probably wouldn't be a real problem. If you do make one, test it in the shop to check the heat level before letting it go home. 
Rick
RickDGBuck
True Grumbler
Maureen,
We did a shadow-boxed stained glass piece a while back using a rope light attached to the inside of the rabbet of the frame. In order to not see a band of light going around the edge of the art we stacked a shallow, wide frame inside of the shadow box frame and mounted the rope light behind it. Then, we lined the back of the stacked moulding and the rabbet of the shadow box moulding, with aluminum foil. We also backed the piece with a piece of 4-ply with foil mounted to the inside. This way we maximized the lights' reflection within the "box", thus, making the artwork brighter. Rick is right about the heat. We cut good sized holes along the bottom and the top edges of the backer to allow for a vertical movement of air inside the box, then put large spacers behind it to keep it off the wall a good amount. Looked great!
We did a shadow-boxed stained glass piece a while back using a rope light attached to the inside of the rabbet of the frame. In order to not see a band of light going around the edge of the art we stacked a shallow, wide frame inside of the shadow box frame and mounted the rope light behind it. Then, we lined the back of the stacked moulding and the rabbet of the shadow box moulding, with aluminum foil. We also backed the piece with a piece of 4-ply with foil mounted to the inside. This way we maximized the lights' reflection within the "box", thus, making the artwork brighter. Rick is right about the heat. We cut good sized holes along the bottom and the top edges of the backer to allow for a vertical movement of air inside the box, then put large spacers behind it to keep it off the wall a good amount. Looked great!
lise
CGF II, Certified Grumble Framer Level 2
Interesting that this topic was brought up. I was just thinking about creating a stained glass mat and using Nielsen profile 100 for a real contemporary look. The glass channel should fit it snugly as long as 2.5mm stained glass was used and the solder didn't come all the way to the edge. Opaque bullseye glass would be my choice if one wished to illuminate it from within.
Frank Larson
CGF II, Certified Grumble Framer Level 2
Just a thought....Could you use a piece of diffusion glass or white plexi between the stained glass and whatever you use for a light? This might help insulate the stained glass from the heat and maybe prevent visual "hotspots" where you can see the light through the stained glass.
Laguna Framing Company
Grumbler in Training
We did a lightbox-type piece for a painting on plexi. The paint was on the back of the plexi so the lights had to stay cool. We went to an aquarium supply store and got aquarium lights because they were cool and bright - the rope lights were the first idea but they weren't bright enough to illuminate through the paint. I didn't do the work so I don't know how the lights were secured in the box, but it looked awesome when it was finished. There was a cord hanging out of the bottom of the frame that had one of those click-wheel-switch things, but the customer was going to try to hook it up to a light switch somehow.
I've used Franks suggestion in a couple of illuminated shadowboxes and it works well. I tried a couple of the diffusion panels used in recessed floresent lighting and used one of those. Added very little weight. I cut ventilation slots in the top and bottom rails of the shadowbox with a plunge router, and on one of them I used a small fan (almost noiseless) that I found at a high end audio systems supplier. The fan was mounted on the inside of the shadowbox and was wired to turn on whenever the lighting was on. It would seem to me that ventilation on the back of the frame would be restricted by the hanging methods, but maybe I'm not understanding the process. The pegboard is a convenient way to secure the rope lighting.