This beautiful mount of hand-collected arrowheads was in need of some attention. The initial glue mount of one of the arrowheads in the top left corner failed, leaving the arrowhead free and potentially damaging the other arrowheads around it.

You can see the fallen arrowhead in the left upper corner. The original frame had a fun, native motif but was not conservation-quality; nor was the mat, as the bevel was brown, indicating acid and the associated discoloration.

So our first course of action was to take apart the old frame and reglue the arrowhead to the backing. In this case, the backing was a extremely unique material: real leather hide! The leather was heavy so there were extra precautions taken to ensure that it would not slide around underneath the new matting.

There is wear and tear around the old frame edges, and a few parts where the veneer was pulling back. A new and deeper frame would allow a true shadow-box treatment.

Once the old matting was removed, we found that the leather had discolored under the mat. Instead of hiding this new element under a mat that would produce the same pinched proportions as before, we opened up the design and leaned into the unique extra line.

Here you can see the depth of the new frame, which allowed a shadowbox to be built. The sides of the box were lined in black to give even more dramatic dimension against the grey/brown top mat.

This extra line became a beautiful addition around the arrowheads and acted almost as a second mat. By moving the mat line outwards and adding several more inches of top-mat around the whole design, the piece became lighter, more focused on the arrowheads, and ultimately more inviting to the eye.

The finished piece: a beautiful woodgrain frame with an open shadowbox in shades of tan, black, and soft brown.

The result is a beautifully reframed piece with better dimensions and Optium Museum Acrylic which lets viewers see the fine details of these exquisite arrowheads up close and with more clarity than before: Stunning!