Wow, wow, wow, wow. TODAY WAS THE DAY! We finally started the framing project for our "I See the Light" PODMs. After months of searching and finding the perfect frames, we capped off our collection of PODMs from this scene at fifteen beautiful scenes and today was the day to start framing them. (Wedding is in 40 days... eek!)
Now, for those of you keeping score, you'll remember that I wanted to frame these sitting on top of the sheet music from "I See the Light" -- I quickly learned that with this many PODMs, this was a very unrealistic idea. Sheet music - at least available to a lowly consumer like myself - is generally only available out of books or as individual sheets which are typically not big enough for a shadowbox of the size I needed. For this to work, I would have to use several pages of the song and basically piece them together... which would mean I would have ugly seams in the background and it would look sloppy. For a few PODMs, this would be beautiful. For fifteen, it just wouldn't work.
I want to sincerely thank my dear friend Ron who spent hours working on this with me today - his math skills and precision in cutting each opening for the pin were insane. He worked so hard on this and I could never, EVER have made this happen without his skills and guidance. So Ron, you are amazing and I love you!
So, without further ado. Here's the "Before":
... And "After":
This is what it looks like held up to our dining room light. (It's actually quite heavy!)
We haven't put the LED circuit in just yet - preparing the foam core, measuring, spacing and cutting holes for the scenes took many, many hours and lots of precise calculations and measurements. Ron did an amazing job with it. Next steps for me will be to install the LEDs behind the foam core - Ron rigged up a way to get an on/off switch on the outside of the frame so we can turn it on easily. I will also be covering the foam core with either black or deep purple velvet (instead of the sheet music background) and we'll be putting in some parchment between the lights and the PODMs to diffuse and even out the light from the LEDs.
Once all THAT is done, I'll go ahead and start decorating the frame. I've got some ideas that I'm really proud of that could be a bit of a departure from what I usually do (I hope, eek!), and a plaque with our names and wedding date.
So, quite a bit of progress made tonight, but we're not done yet! I wanted to share my progress photos since some of you had been asking about it... I am so proud of this display already, and to have had so many people aid in acquiring the PODMs and then to have someone we love so dearly help us display them -- it's a pretty special part of our home already and it's something we'll cherish forever!!
Thanks everyone!! More updates soon!