Memories you can hold, stories you can wear
We are at 42 Mitchell Street, Kirkcaldy. You're welcome to pop in, however, it's better to make a booking here
We are at 42 Mitchell Street, Kirkcaldy. You're welcome to pop in, however, it's better to make a booking here
Once you have baby casts created you will want to display them proudly on the wall of your home. There are lots of different options to do this.
In this blog, I am going to share my thoughts on two types of framing –
The old-fashioned or common way to frame baby casts was to use a box frame, sometimes called a shadow frame (because they’re dark and shadowy!)
A box frame can be made in two ways.
Both then have casts attached to the cardboard inside, with a single sheet of untempered (not safety) glass fitted to the front, supported by a few millimeters of frame rebate.
You may have been told, “Box frames are safer for your baby casts”. I recently had a customer tell me they’d been told this. Oh, dear…
Safer than what?
Personally, I don’t think my living room is a high-risk area in terms of safety. I don’t feel the need to wear a high-visibility vest, I don’t ask guests to wear safety helmets, and I generally don’t feel the need to carry out a risk assessment before precariously making my way through to the kitchen! Ha ha ha…
If by safer you mean it’s hidden in a dark, shadowy box behind a reflective sheet of untempered glass…then yes…your casts are safe – safely hidden! #rolls eyes
If you needed to shield yourself from injury, would you choose a sheet of glass to do this??? hmmmm…
Obviously, accidents can happen. Something might fall or be thrown and hit your casts. Just as any ornament or fragile item in your home, there’s always the risk of breakage.
BROKEN GLASS
If annealed glass breaks, it tends to break into longer, jagged, unpredictable, and dangerous shards – as opposed to tempered safety glass, which shatters into small chunks and pieces.
If you imagine the difference between smashing a drinking glass, and how a car windscreen breaks.
Frames will usually have the cheaper, annealed glass.
Where will that smashed, flying glass go? Well, the shards either smash back, slicing into your precious baby casts with shards of glass, possibly with force. The broken glass will cause more damage to your casts than whatever broke the glass in the first place. As well as smashing back towards your baby casts it can potentially fall out the unsupported frame and injure those nearby.
Other reasons I prefer not to use box frames –
I’ve been lifecasting for over 21 years, and I’ve watched countless others all come and go. I can name the individuals who copy my older styles, I can look at other makers’ work and tell you who mass-produced their frames too.
People who copy are boring.
I can safely say I was the first maker to mount casts IN FRONT of glass. Why? Because I didn’t want to ‘follow the crowd’ but more than that, I wanted to see, touch and feel my casts!
This style uses a more traditional design of frame – the backboard, mounts, display etc is all held within the frame rebate, but the casts are mounted in front of the glass.
When a suitable frame is created and casts are mounted on top of glass properly, you can admire, touch, feel, enjoy, and clearly see your baby casts. They are not at any more risk of damage – in fact, in my opinion, they are less likely to be damaged. In my 21 years of lifecasting I can count on one hand the number of issues that have arisen. And not one of those was made worse by the choice of an open frame. The very small number of customers that HAVE had an accident – ALL have been repairable.
Back in 2003 when I first started lifecasting I experimented with a lot of new ideas and one of those was to frame the casts in front of the glass instead of behind. I hadn’t seen this being done by anyone.
My reasons for preferring open frames:
Of course any frame with glass can be broken, but if the glass is fitted in a ‘standard frame’ where the glass sits against the mount and backboard, the glass is more supported. Of course it can still break, but the likelihood of the glass actually falling or flying out in shards is vastly reduced. The breakage is likely held within the backing of the frame and the impact might have missed your casts altogether…but if something did directly hit your baby casts, it might break, but they have encountered impact from only one source, not the double impact of shattering glass also hitting them. The damage would be far more localised too.
It’s important to remember that although we’re discussing frame options, the robustness of your casts themselves is just as important as any frame. No frame will protect poorly made casts, created in a cheap or wrongly mixed stone material that haven’t been dried, or created properly.
All casts created at Impressive Memories are made from very high-density stone, which is far more robust than a sheet of annealed glass. Of course, they aren’t unbreakable, but in the event of damage occurring, I know my materials should break cleanly, not crumble, and I can repair 99.99% of damage invisibly if it ever does happen.
Some lifecasters choose to use much cheaper and softer stone powders, which do not have appropriate strength or longevity.
Frame mouldings can be made from many different materials too. This plays an important part in the strength, longevity and suitability. At Impressive Memories my luxury frame range are hand made for me, from a recycled, environmentally friendly material. We don’t want to be creating unnecessary landfill. Even our packaging now is eco friendlier.
I have created several works in box frames over the years, but I rarely buy from a mass-produced off-the-shelf companies. I have mine hand made for me, reflecting my own style, design, and brand. If you would like your casts framed in box frames, just let me know and we can do that.
What I won’t do is copy another life caster’s unique style.
If it’s a standard, generic look, that’s no problem. But why would anyone ever want to be standard or generic?
I Want Them to Match My Older Child’s
As I said earlier, I won’t copy others. But if you like things to match and look alike, I CAN reframe the original casts you have to match your new casts.
If you have an Impressive Baby that deserves to be uniquely immortalised…visit Impressive Memories Ltd.
Find out More about Our Baby Casting Here
Your Casts. Your Way.
Choose how you frame your baby life casts in a way that you love. Enjoy them, treasure them, touch, hold, and let them remind you of how impressively unique and beautiful your baby was – remember how tiny and perfect they were – in all their wriggly glory! Safe in the knowledge that the moment has been immortalised. If you want me to help you do this – Get in Touch x