Shadowbox Sizing: Too Big, Too Small, Just Right?

OK, creative types!

Short version: How do you decide what size shadowbox to invest in for a pin collection that is still "in progress"? And on a related side note, how likely are we to see a significant amount of live-action Cinderella pins?

Long version: I really liked "Cinderella" (more than I expected, considering I originally planned to see it just to watch "Frozen Fever") and decided to collect at least some of the pins from the movie. Since it's live action, and live action films tend not to get anywhere near as many pins as animated films do, I feel like it will be an easy side collection to maintain. Buuuutttttttt ...

As my pins start to arrive, I don't want to leave them lying around on my dresser for long. I'm looking forward to decorating a shadowbox all purty and stuff. But I'm not sure what size shadowbox to buy, because I don't know how many MORE pins I might want to add to it eventually.

With my Alice and Frozen collections, I know I will continually add to them, so I have bigger shadowboxes (16 x 20 in, I think) and just add news pins as I get them. But this Cindy collection will never be infinite or huge. And yet ... I don't wanna have to re-do the display whenever I do get a new pin.

I guess what I'm looking for, besides general opinions, is anyone who has a "scale" from experience, such as "a 10 x 10 frame typically holds X number of pins," etc.

Thoughts?

I prefer to use multiple frames to break things up instead of one massive one. There's also nothing wrong with starting with a smaller frame and moving up to something bigger at some point then reusing the smaller frame for something else. You could even just group together the pins across a bunch of much smaller frames if you're into that.

As for how many Cinderella pins? Who knows. It depends on how long they can milk things from the movie and how long it stays popular and profitable. Look at Frozen - not their newest film at this point, but we're still getting lots of Frozen themed pins. Before that was Tangled and that seemed to fizzle out when Frozen hype caught on. Then there are movies like Atlantis which hardly got anything because the movie wasn't very profitable.

I mostly have only done shadowboxes for specific sets within my collection that are finite. I have one with the 2013 poster art series, and one with the Alice Disney Gallery pins, and I'm planning one for the Small World Mystery set when I get it complete. The exception is my shadowbox for Administrative Professionals Day pins, but I knew I only needed a few more and Disney doesn't seem to be producing them anymore. :/

As for how I figured 'em... math. Seriously, I took the average size of the pins, rounded that up a bit to include some comfortable space around them-- I think I ended using up about 2 inches square-- and then took that x number of pins, and then rounded that up.

Also you could lay the pins out on your desk or table, arrange them more or less a comfortable space apart, and then measure about how much area that takes up.

How to allow for future pins when you don't know how many there will be? No idea! That's why I only do it for finite sets.

I wouldn't expect there would be a lot more live action Cinderella pins. Probably a few more, especially around the time of the dvd release, but not that many. And unlike live action Alice, I wouldn't expect live action Cinderella to get a sequel, so you'll probably be pretty much "done" after the dvd release.

a4matte said:

I prefer to use multiple frames to break things up instead of one massive one. There's also nothing wrong with starting with a smaller frame and moving up to something bigger at some point then reusing the smaller frame for something else. You could even just group together the pins across a bunch of much smaller frames if you're into that.

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This is generally good advice, but a) I have, like, no room left anywhere for anything, ha, and b) due to "a" I rearranged all of my Alice pins into a few larger frames, whereas, as you and Vixy both indicated, you have smaller frames for specific sets. I started out that way and ended up with 753 "small" frames (I might be exaggerating a little) and just looked around one day and thought, "When did I move into Mike the Junk Man's bric-a-brac shop?" It was out of control. So now for my Alice collection, I have a "Grail box" of four completed sets that are LE and HTF, another large frame of "Alice IN Wonderland" and a third of "Alice OUTSIDE Wonderland" with things like the PTDs, attraction-related pins, and other "alternate universe" (ie, non-movie) pins. Oh, crackers, and another one of "Holidays in Wonderland" that has my (shocker) holiday-themed Wonderland pins. I have more "discarded" small frames stashed somewhere or other than an entire Michaels store.

At least Frozen has contained itself to one large frame with room to grow so far (because Disney may produce 10,000 Frozen pins per minute, but I don't like that many of them these days).

Tricky, tricky! It's a difficult question for someone else to answer because it all depends on the designer. I collect cat pins, basically all Disney felines. My Cheshire board grew at an alarming rate and here I am, eight/nine years later with two 16x20 boards filled. But those boards do not include specific series of cat pins, like the hep Cats or Cheshire around the World series, both of which have necessitated their own, separate boxes.

In that same time frame, my Figaro cat pins have only just this last month been rehoused from an 8x10 shadow box into an 11x14. I could've fit more pins into the smaller board but I wanted to add a silhouette background and needed the extra space. So the question to ask is, are you only placing pins in the box? Are you dead set on live action Cinderella pins to be placed in a box by themselves? Or would you consider housing more than one group into a box?

As a general rule for myself, pin sets that are still growing in number (PTD's, sorcerer hats, random Finding Nemo acquisitions) I keep them in a pin trading book until my patience wanes and I know that if I don't frame them ASAP, I will lose my mind. :ugh:

I struggle with this as well! All my pins are currently housed in my large pin book. It's HEAVY and I'm running out of space so I need to start framing them. However, except for one pin that I want to frame solo (my most wanted pin of all time) the others I don't plan to frame in sets. My TLM collection for example will be growing constantly, how could I possibly plan for it? I think it would look odd to buy a huge frame and have a bunch of empty space, but I also know I'll outgrow a smaller frame. Ultimately I think sometimes you just gotta buy a bit big and eventually get a new frame when you outgrow it, recycle the old frame for a smaller collection, and keep the cycle going. As was stated though, I suspect live action Cinderella will stay fairly small and finite since the pins usually release during the premier and movie sales. Good luck! I want to see pictures when you do frame it!


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Finally got around to working on this last night:

Very pretty Cinderella shadowbox! You've gone into Cinderella now?!

Besitiful! I'm still on the hunt for the 3 pin set! Your display is very lovely


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starry_solo said:

Very pretty Cinderella shadowbox! You've gone into Cinderella now?!

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Haha, LIVE ACTION Cinderella, yes! Small and easy to keep up with. I only went to see it for "Frozen Fever" and ended up LOVING Cindy. So I decided to branch out a teeny bit. Still collecting Alice with a side of Frozen (but all my Alice wants are Grails and most of the new Frozen pins bore me).

Personally, I've got two sizes .... most of my pins are in the "Keepsake" shadow boxes pictured below. I keep many of my smaller collections in 10" x12" shadow boxes (Last Image) which typically holds about 18 pins.











The nice thing about these shadow boxes is the easy access with the hinged front. As my collections grow and change, I find I'm constantly rearranging them and the easy access makes it a breeze.