Entry 7
just finished a military shadow box for a customer and with his permission, I would like to enter it in the November's Military themed competition. I wasn't sure how much detail you wanted in the description. You could probably just ignore the last 3 paragraphs, if you find the description too long.
This was a first for me... The customer recently retired from the military but still required access to his medals a few times a year. He wanted to be able to remove his medals from the shadow box without having to worry about disturbing the rest of the items. He said he didn't mind taking the frame off the wall the few times/year, so it was decided to build a 'trap door' in the back of the frame to gain access to just the medals. All he has to do is to turn the turnbuttons and use the Melinex strap to easily pull out the mount that is holding the medals. The customer wanted to see as much of the main design of the flags as possible, without making the overall frame size too large, so the two corners of the flags that meet in the centre were each 'cropped' by 4 1/2".
- Frame is 23 1/2" (h) x 32" (w)
- Cap moulding is Michaelangelo # M139-29
- 1x2 clear pine (primed, painted black & varnished) was used as an extension at the back for the necessary depth
- Bainbridge's Noel suede (#4179) - chosen to highlight the bits of red in the memorabilia as well as it being one of the colours associated with the RCA
- Tru Vue Conservation Clear glass (museum glass was out of the customer's budget range)
The rank slip-ons were sewn in place. The cap badges and the RCA/RCR were attached by cutting slits/holes in the matboard and feeding the pin/clip to the back and securing. A strip of Melinex was also used at the top of the RCA cap badge to hold it against the matboard.
The two flags were folded over pieces of foamcore that had been padded with polyester batting to give the flag a 'softer' look and pinned at the back with stainless steel pins. This resulted in a bulky area at the back of the flag, so in order for the flags to lie flat against the backing matboard, I had to cut a couple holes in the matboard (as well as the foamcore layer behind the matboard) to accomodate the excess flag fabric in that bulky area.
The extra photo shows the small wooden frame that was used to house the medals mount. It was made from Michaelangelo moulding # M145-29, cut reverse (i.e. the lip on the outside of the frame), and lined with Lineco's rabbet sealing tape. I basically did a sink mount for that frame into the foamcore backing, first having a layer of foamcore that aligned with the top of the lip and then had another foamcore layer that overlapped the lip. I also used dabs of Frank's ph neutral fabric glue to help hold the mini-frame in place.
