The first of March was a busy day. My oldest brother called after the Satsuma press workshop wondering if I was feeling creative. He had a small project up his sleeve that required some matting skills. His goal was to recycle an Envision LCD monitor (our mother didn’t want) into an elegant digital photo frame. I figured “Why not! Come on over. Give me about 2hrs to get some space cleared in the studio.” Well, it took about 4 hrs to get things cleared, but that was just fine due to a music rehearsal he forgot about. As a side note, his group Milling About Smartly will be playing Block 15 on March 17 (Sea Shanties and the likes).
Once they arrived, beer & dinner consumed, we set to work. He had purchased a 12″x16″ black shadowbox, thinking the entire monitor would easily fit with matting. The entire case did fit. I examined it and said “Nope, not going to work due to the plastic framing.” The monitor has a 12″ screen length and 9″ height that could not be centered due to the external casing. So he and my husband Dave set about dismantling the plastic casing and found a very nice screen (and a few other parts) that could easily be mounted to a different surface. Dave found some cedar blocks that comfortably filled in the space after a few cuts on the table saw. Mike was then able to mount the naked screen to the blocks and drop the shadowbox over the unit. I took care of creating a double mat to accenting the screen. By the end Mike & Shannon took home the start of a very inexpensive digital photo frame. He still has a bit of work to do regarding how the wiring will be routed through the back of the frame and on/off button, but that won’t take him long. It ended up being a fun, hopefully functioning , project. Plus, I got my studio space cleaned up!
Here are some of the photos….
Sticks, Stones, and Paper Stew Blog 