A glass portrait arrives ready to hang on the walnut shadow box's own fitting. The 30 × 30 cm piece suits a hallway, a shelf or the wall by the stairs; the 50 × 50 cm holds its own above a sofa or a sideboard. Choose a wall with moving daylight and without hours of direct sun.
What does a glass portrait hang from?
From the shadow box's own fitting, which is on the frame before it leaves the studio. There is nothing to attach and nothing to buy for the frame itself.
What you do choose is the fixing in the wall. The piece is glass in a deep walnut box, so give it a fixing suited to your wall rather than a pin meant for a print. Hang it, step back, and check it sits flat: the relief is built to be seen straight on and from the side as you pass.
Which wall suits which size?
The 30 × 30 cm piece is for places you see close up and in passing; the 50 × 50 cm piece is for a wall you look at from across a room.
| Place | Size | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A hallway | 30 × 30 cm | Seen close and in passing, where the relief reads at arm's length |
| A shelf or a console | 30 × 30 cm | Stands upright in its box as well as it hangs |
| The wall by the stairs | 30 × 30 cm | Takes light from more than one angle as you climb |
| Above a sofa | 50 × 50 cm | Holds its own at a distance |
| Above a sideboard | 50 × 50 cm | Room for the relief to read from across the room |
If you are between the two, the sizing guide compares them line by line.
What light suits a glass portrait?
Daylight that moves. The portrait is built up in relief and throws its own small shadows, so as the light shifts across the day the face changes with it. Move past it and the light moves across the face.
The one light to avoid is hours of strong direct sun, which does nothing to the glass but yellows the linen ground in time. A wall beside a window, rather than opposite one that takes the full afternoon, is the usual answer.
Can it stand instead of hang?
Yes. The shadow box stands upright on its own, and the photographs on this site show pieces standing on a wooden console beside a jar of lavender, on a pale oak sideboard, on a desk beside a laptop and on the floor beside the dog one was drawn from.
The 30 × 30 cm piece is the one that suits a shelf. Stand it with its back against the wall, out of the way of elbows and tails, and dust it the same way as a hung piece: a soft dry brush or a cold hairdryer, never a cloth dragged across the glass.
Alone, or in a row?
Either. One portrait above a console is how most arrive; the studio's own wall hangs five in a row, a Bernese, a ginger cat, a beagle, a black cat and a grey poodle, above an oak bench.
A row works because every piece shares the same square walnut box, the same linen and the same depth of relief, whichever pet or person is in it. Each one is drawn from its own photograph on the create page, and the shop has the ready designs and the examples to start from.
Questions this leaves
Does it come with a hook?
It arrives ready to hang on the shadow box's own fitting. What goes into the wall is yours to choose, and because the piece is glass in a walnut box it deserves a fixing suited to the wall rather than a pin for a light print.
Can it hang in a sunny room?
A bright room, yes; a wall that takes hours of strong direct sun, no. The glass is unaffected, but the linen yellows in time under that kind of light. Daylight that moves across the piece is what it was built for.
Which size goes above a sofa?
The 50 × 50 cm. It holds its own above a sofa or a sideboard, where the piece is seen from across the room. The 30 × 30 cm is for a hallway, a shelf or the wall by the stairs, where it is seen close.
Can I put it on a shelf?
Yes. The shadow box stands upright, and the 30 × 30 cm piece is the one the studio suggests for a shelf. Keep its back to the wall and keep it out of hours of direct sun, as you would on a wall.
