#43: Make Your Own Homemade Shadow Box! (part 1)

Recently, I posted a picture of a completed piece to my Facebook and to my amazement, I had an interested buyer within an hour of posting.  The piece (below) is a 3' x 3' painting on canvas and it really needed a shadow box before I felt satisfied with the finished product.  I'm not super handy with tools and have little experience building things (without Legos).  In the rest of the post, I will discuss how I created a simple shadow box for my artwork.

[Untitled Sea Turtle Piece] - 3' x 3'

Step 1:  I purchased four 6-foot sections of pine wood at Home Depot.  This ran me about $12.  You will also require wood glue, a staple gun (borrow it!), screws, nails (optional), saw (borrow it!), miter box (optional), and a drill (borrow it!).  Each section was a bit more than 6-foot long, so I kept that in mind when measuring and marking.  I cut 3-foot sections, keeping in mind the extra length on each section.  Then, I put the first four sections together tip-to-inside-edge.  Take some extra time to square it up before gently putting the painting down.

Tip-to-inside-edge

Step 2:  I put the art on top of my placed pieces and re-squared them.  I eyeballed it until I felt that the art was right in the center.

Step 3:  I added the last four sections of pine.  Notice that the corners do not touch; that is the look that I desired in this shadow box.  I squared them up and checked each side before moving on.

In this shadow box, the top pieces do not touch.

Step 4:  Glue the top pieces down.  I felt that it was important to do this first to make sure everything lined up with the painting inside.  The bottom pieces are less visible than the top ones, so I wanted to make sure the top ones were lined up.

I stapled each piece of wood 3-4 times.  One piece was warped so after stapling and gluing, I added nails to help hold the two pieces together.

The bottom piece was warped so I added 3 nails to help hold it together while the glue dries.

Tomorrow I'll be ready to lightly sand all four dry pieces, glue and staple them together, and paint them!  :]