Shadowbox Satisfaction

Untitled, 10X12X4
The finished product.
(Glass is impossible to photograph and the dimension in the layers is impossible to capture.)

 

My daughter has has been working hard on this project for her graphic design class now for several weeks. The drawing itself is among her first digital renderings in Adobe Illustrator. There were times when she was frustrated by her own lack of knowledge about the program. Then once she figured out how to make the drawing she was stuck figuring out how to shade it. She never got the fox's dress to her liking, so she changed it to pants. She then had the idea to make the drawing layers literal, and she set out to make a shadowbox for the drawing. She had to figure out how to make the drawing "stand up" in a box...and oh yeah, what box? She asked if I'd be willing to help her make the box (duh). So one teacher (who isn't even her instructor) cut several 8X10 rectangles of the super-thick glass that was donated to her by her teacher. She figured out how to print on several transparencies and discovered the layers were too transparent to be stacked, so she had to reverse-paint the backs of her drawing layers. She then sandwiched them between glass and carefully taped up the edges only to get home and find out no amount of wood, glue and screws could possibly support the weight of a 3" glass sandwich. The project sat still for awhile.

We bought new glass this weekend by buying frames with 8X10 glass in them. I got out the chop saw and as usual sucked at making right angles from warped antique wood. After two slightly catawampus attempts Cody took over. He failed twice, too, so Chloe decided to use the actual frame on the front of her box. I sawed the wood for the frame and it turned out close enough to square. Meanwhile Chloe's transparencies were peeled off the old glass, creating foggy places where she had glued them together. She decided to cut out the pieces of her drawing and then glued them to the glass. The glue made the ink warp! She figured that out, too, by adjusting the placement of her layers.

It was finally time to fill the box. She put down the first layer of glass, added the mat board and put down her first layer backed by another sheet of glass and secured it to the box. Old paint flecks fell to the layer below. Out came the layers again. The wood was steel wooled to prevent flaking and chipping. The layers went back in. Then she had the genius idea of how to separate the layers of glass (different than my own way of doing this in my own boxes). She carefully stacked and added layers. Turning the whole thing over that first time was pretty awesome! Finally she finished off the back by cutting another piece of mat board, stapled the edges and we added the hanger (which had to be stolen from one of my frames because I was not going to the store that late and she was so close to being finished!).

The end result was quite satisfying for Chloe because of all the work she put into it.

It was also quite satisfying for me to watch my girl come up with an idea, digitally render it (I have absolutely no idea how to do this) and see it through to a fantastic completion. Plus, because of her ideas, I've found a new way to make a super sturdy shadowbox (something I've never quite nailed).