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Here is an idea I had to use a fossil fragment and turn it into something a little more displayable (in my opinion)

Thought I’d share an example of the floating frames I use to display some of the teeth and claws that we find. Also used to display shark teeth and arrowheads. Pretty dang cheap and I like how they look. Online they are “floating frames” or coin display frames. All kinds of sizes.

I framed a pair of rock slabs recently, using a technique suggested by a forum member. I've done this before, and it has always come out well. I used Neilsen Metal Sectional Mouldings for the frame. I got the pieces custom cut by a frame maker, and just had to screw them together and add the wire. This technique works for slabs are fairly square or rectangular. There is overhang on the frames with will let you fudge a bit unevenness, but there is a limit. Neither of these slabs were perfectly rectangular and they worked fine. I used the N117 size frame, because it gives decent depth for the thickness of the rock slab and is also has a slim edge for these small slabs. I have use the N95 frame also; it is good if you want a thicker frame, such as for a large slab. Total price including shipping and hanging hardware for both was $26.61. Send me a PM if you want to know the online frame shop I used.

antique mall find. old typed tag say's fossil sharks teeth. Any ideas on the types of sharks based on the sizes or shapes? The frame construction tells me it has been around for awhile. Thanks, Bob

We are back home now after being evacuated for a week because of the wildfires around Santa Rosa. Before we were evacuated I had started working on a Christmas gift for a friend who likes my fossils but is not a dedicated collector. In searching through my collection, I found a Knightia eocaena fossil fish I had dug from the Split Fish Layer near Kemmerer, Wyoming. It’s not the greatest specimen, but since I had both the part and counterpart I thought it might be interesting to put them together into a single frame. I thought I would fill you in on what I did. Original fish slabs The first thing was to cut both slabs into identically-sized rectangles using an old tile saw I once picked up from Harbor Freight. The next step was to figure out how I wanted to frame them. To do the design, I used PowerPoint to create various size rectangles into which I pasted JPEGs of the fossils. After a bit of experimentation, I came up with this design I liked. PowerPoint design of framed fish Since the design didn’t fit within a standard commercial frame, I needed to construct my own. I started with ¾” pine corner molding I picked up at the local Home Depot for $0.78 per foot. I bought 8 feet worth so I had plenty of extra in case I made a mistake. I used a small miter box to cut the 45-degree angles on the frame pieces. While the cuts were pretty good, I knew they wouldn’t be perfect. So I made each piece slightly longer than necessary and used the disk sander on my Harbor Freight belt sander to sand the edges flat at the correct length. I used a 45-degree triangle to set the guide so I got a perfect 45-degree angle on the sander. Next, I glued the frame together using wood glue. I picked up two corner clamps from Harbor Freight (notice a trend here…) so I could glue two sides together at a time. Once the glue dried I removed the clamps and used them again to glue the two halves together into the final frame. To paint the frame, I used a can of spray paint in my custom-designed spray painting booth. Custom designed paint booth built from materials in my garage. Note it is obvious I live in wine country. I considered several options for how to mount the fossils in the frame. I finally decided to cut a piece of ½” plywood so that it just fit inside the frame. Then I used my Harbor Freight scroll saw to cut out two rectangles just the right size for the fish. I glued the fish into the plywood using Duco cement along the edges, making sure the fronts of the fish slabs were flush with the front of the plywood. The next step was to cut a window mat out of mounting board that would fit between the plywood and the frame to give it a finished appearance. To get the desired orange color I took ordinary white mat board and glued a sheet of colored artist’s paper onto it. I have a Logan Compact Mat Cutter that I use to cut mats when mounting my photographs. It wasn’t designed to cut such small mats but with a little creativity I was able to make it work. You can see all the lines I drew on the back of the board showing where to make the cuts. I also cut a piece of 1/32” clear acrylic to fit between the mat and the frame for protection. The fossil slabs were too thick for the frame and I needed to thin them down. So it was back to the Harbor Freight belt sander. Although I had never tried this before, I figured the matrix was soft enough that the 80-grit sandpaper would make short work of it, and besides, the sanding belt would be inexpensive to replace if necessary. As predicted, it worked fine. Finally, I cut a piece of ¼” red oak I had laying around to serve as the back, painted it the same color as the frame, added a sawtooth picture hanger, glued a laser-printed label on the plywood, and screwed it all together. Here is the final result: It was such a fun project I decided to take the same approach to construct a homemade version of a Riker mount:

Hi all, what method of sticking fossils to the back frame of a photo frame would you guys recommend? I have got several deep photo frames with 40mm of gap between the glass and the backframe which I intend to convert to fossil display boxes. Filling the boxes up with wool doesn't work as these are not riker boxes, I can only remove the back frame, not the front glass. I 've thought of using double sided tape or sticky/blue/white/construction tack to stick the fossils onto the back frame, however I 've got several matrix type fossils which are highly porous, and either method would end up ruining the fossils if I ever decide to remove them. Does anyone know how else I can secure fossils to the back frame of the photo frames?