The wood used in creating our shadow box photo frames, featuring our original photography, and shadowbox shell frames comes from authentic Florida spiny lobster traps. 

      This wood is imported from Honduras and the traps are assembled and used locally. When the lobster traps are underwater from August to April saltwater “worms” and other marine life bore into or attach to the wood planks. In the “off season” the traps are stored on land exposed to the sun. The fasteners rust away from exposure to the elements. The varied nail heads, staples, shell and barnacle growth are natural. Once dried out, these planks are often warped so the frames are not “perfect”. All of this combines to give the wood planks their distinctive distressed look ensuring that each finished art piece will always be unique from the next.

      Occasionally during the working season some of the planks on the traps get damaged or broken and are then repaired when they are hauled out for re-baiting.  This is why some of the planks look less aged than others. The combination of the failure of the fasteners and the damage caused by the worms results in these traps only lasting a few seasons before being replaced. Once removed from service, we turn them into our shadow box frames. Portions of the trap are returned to the lobsterman and reused on the next trap.

      Each trap carries a tag.  These tags identify the season/year it was utilized and the identification number of the commercial lobsterman.  Every year the tags are issued in a different color to help identify if the trap is a current and legal trap.  Since each trap only bares one tag we have a limited number of tags so normally we put them on our larger art pieces. Some of the traps from the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons were temporarily “lost” due to tremendous wave action caused by Hurricanes Francis, Jeanne and Wilma.

      We hope you enjoy your unique piece of art from the sea for many years to come!