Pet memorial shadow box: collar, paw print and photo

A memorial shadow box for a pet usually holds four things: the collar and tag, a paw print, a photograph and one small thing that was theirs. The collar is tied to the backing with loops of cotton tape, not glued. The paw print rests on a small ledge. The photograph on show is a copy, with the original kept safe. A lock of fur goes in a sealed vial or envelope. None of it is difficult, and none of it has to be done this week.

There is no hurry. Put the things together in a clean cardboard box, somewhere dry and out of the light, and make the shadow box when you feel ready to.

The care advice in this guide comes from museum conservation notes. The ways of fixing each thing in the box are practical suggestions that follow those notes, not museum methods.

Choosing what goes in

Fewer things, each with room round it, make a calmer box than everything at once. A common choice:

The collar and tag. The thing they wore every day.
A paw print, in clay or plaster from the vet or a kit, or in ink on paper.
One photograph.
One small object: a favourite toy, a bandana, a lead clip, a first puppy collar beside the last one.
A name and dates.

Lay them out on a sheet of paper the size of the backing and move them about until it looks right. Take a picture of the layout before you fix anything.

For depth, measure the thickest thing lying flat, usually the paw print or the rolled collar, and add 10 mm so that nothing touches the glass. About 50 mm inside suits most. How to make a shadow box covers building a box or deepening a picture frame.

The collar

Most collars are leather or woven nylon, with a metal buckle and tag. What follows on leather is from the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI), a Canadian government agency, in its note on the care of tanned leather.

Leave it as it is. It is tempting to clean and condition a worn collar. CCI advises against it: “Care of stiff leathers should therefore not include the application of saddle soap or a dressing”. The note explains that dressings can stiffen and darken leather over time and stain what lies next to it, and that saddle soap is very alkaline. A soft dry brush to lift loose dust is enough. Many people would not want it cleaned in any case: the wear, and a few hairs caught in the buckle, are part of it.

Give it a gentle shape. “Sharp folds or creases should be padded to avoid cracking and eventual splitting of the leather.” Buckle the collar and lay it as a circle or a soft oval, or lay it out in a shallow curve. Do not fold it flat on itself. If it must bend tightly, put a small roll of unbuffered acid-free tissue inside the bend.

Tie it, do not glue it. CCI asks that leather be “fully supported” on display and gives no method for a collar. This is a practical way to attach one in a shadow box that follows its advice:

Place the collar on the fabric-covered backing and mark three or four points round it: one each side of the buckle, one or two opposite.
At each point, pierce two small holes in the backing, one just inside the collar and one just outside.
Thread narrow cotton tape up through one hole, over the collar and down through the other. Knot it behind the board. On leather use flat tape, not thread or fishing line: CCI warns that thin lines “can also cut into softer surfaces”, and names leather among them.
Keep each tie snug, not tight. It should hold the collar in place without pressing a groove into it. Add ties until no part of the collar hangs unsupported; a long or heavy collar can also rest its lower edge on a small ledge.

Use tape the colour of the collar and the ties all but vanish. Because nothing is stuck, the collar can be lifted out and held again whenever you want.

Mind the metal. CCI notes that brass and other copper alloys “react with the oils in the leather and form waxy green corrosion products” where they touch, and recommends “inserting a sheet of Mylar or polyethylene sheet as an interleaf”. If you see green wax round the buckle or rivets, slip a small strip of clear polyester film between the metal and the leather. Let the tag hang free where it can be read, or tie it flat with one loop of thread through its ring.

A nylon or fabric collar is treated like any textile: ties or a few stitches, and no glue, tape or staples, which CCI’s textile framing note lists among the things that should never touch a textile being framed.

The paw print

Clay or plaster prints are the heaviest and most breakable thing in the box.

Handle with clean cotton gloves. Treat the print as porous unless you know it is glazed or sealed. CCI’s note on plaster says bare plaster “is very porous”, so that water “will create tide lines and staining”, and asks for clean cotton gloves “to avoid transferring moisture and oils from the skin”. Never wash a print. Dust it with a soft brush.
Rest it on a ledge. As a practical mount, fix a narrow strip of acrylic or sealed wood through the backing so that the print’s lower edge sits on it. The ledge carries the weight.
Hold it back with two ties of flat cotton tape across its face near the edges, through holes in the backing, snug and not tight. Use tape here too, for the same reason: plaster is another of the soft surfaces CCI names. If the print has a hanging hole, the tape can pass through that, as long as the ledge still carries the weight.
Do not rely on glue or sticky pads. CCI’s general warning about adhesives is that they “suffer bond failure” with time, and a print that drops inside the box breaks.

Ink prints on paper go into photo corners or under mounting strips, the non-adhesive methods the Library of Congress recommends in its framing guidelines. Many inks fade quickly: CCI’s guide to light damage puts most felt-tip pens and most red and blue ballpoint inks in its most sensitive group. Make a scan or a photocopy, and consider framing the copy.

The photograph

Frame a copy and keep the original. CCI’s note on colour photographs says it without softening: “Do not display valuable, original, historically significant colour pictures. Instead, use copy prints for display purposes.” And: “Above all, prevent exposure to direct sunlight.”

For a photograph taken on a phone this is easy: print one for the box and keep the file backed up. For an old print, scan it first; what DPI to scan photos gives the settings. Hold the print in the box with photo corners, and write nothing on its face. If you want a note on the original, CCI’s advice is to “write it on the back, as close to the edge as possible, using an HB pencil”.

A lock of fur

Fur needs protecting from two things. CCI’s note on pelts warns that the larvae of clothes moths and carpet beetles “can destroy these materials in a matter of days”, and that all fur is “subject to discolouration by light”: “Dark colours fade and light colours become yellow.”

So keep it sealed and shaded:

A small glass vial with a tight stopper, tied to the backing round its neck, shuts insects out and shows the fur. Make sure the fur is dry before it is sealed in.
A folded envelope of acid-free paper, labelled, keeps it in the dark. It can sit behind the photograph.

Tie the lock with a single thread first so that it stays together.

Toys and other things

Fabric toys and bandanas: a few stitches through a seam into the covered backing.
Rubber balls and chew toys: think twice. CCI’s note on rubber and plastic says these materials may turn “brittle, hard, or cracked” or “spongy, or sticky” with age, and CCI’s products bulletin advises against putting vulcanised rubber, or any rubber that contains sulphur compounds, next to objects. Its rule of thumb: “if something smells, then it is releasing volatile compounds and probably should be segregated from other objects”. A photograph of the toy, or of them with it, is the safer way to include it.
A lead clip or a brush: tie with thread, and pad anything metal that rests against leather or a photograph.
Ashes. If you keep a small sealed urn or keepsake vial in the box, treat it as the heaviest object: stand it on a ledge and tie it back so that it does not tip.

A name, dates and a few words

A plate with the name and the years gives the box its centre. Three free ways to make one here:

Text to SVG turns any wording into cutting outlines, sized in millimetres, for a cutting machine or a laser.
The paw print files include dog and cat prints, outlines, and paws with hearts, to cut from card as a small mark beside the name.
Ready-lettered sayings such as Always in Our Hearts and Your Wings Were Ready come as cut files, and the dog bone set has a bone-shaped name frame.

These are paper or vinyl decoration that you cut and stick to the backing. They do not hold or protect anything; they say who the box is for.

A backdrop is optional. Plain linen or felt in a quiet colour is usual. If you would like a scene behind the things, such as a wood, a beach or a hill they loved, the shadow box maker makes layered paper scenes to cut from card.

Where to hang it

Light and damp do the damage, slowly.

Out of direct sun. CCI advises against exposing leather to “spotlights, direct sunlight, or daylight”, and gives 50 lux, a tenth of office lighting, as the limit for dyed leather in a museum. At home, an inside wall away from windows is the practical version.
Away from heat and damp: not above a radiator or a fire, not in a bathroom or kitchen. CCI’s range for leather is 45 to 55% relative humidity, with mould a risk above 65%.
Closed at the back. Tape the join between the backing and the frame to keep out dust.
With glazing that filters ultraviolet, if you have the choice. It helps, though it does not stop fading from visible light.

Look inside once or twice a year. Green wax at the buckle, fine dust under the fur, or a paler photograph are the early signs, and the sections above say what to do about each.

If you would rather not do it yet

Wrap the collar in acid-free tissue, unbuffered if it is leather, as CCI recommends for leather storage. Put it with the print and the photograph in a clean box, and keep the box in a cupboard in the house, not a loft or a garage. The things can wait there until you are ready.