Mount Design, Fabrication & Installation

ELY assembled a team of mountmakers who worked for ten months constructing seismic mounts for more than 500 artifacts, ranging from the smallest ivory floats to a 17 foot long skin kayak. The mount designs required that objects be removable from display while remaining on their mount to keep the objects safe during handling. This called for a constant dialogue between the ELY team and the Smithsonian conservators. ELY installed the artifacts at the Anchorage Museum in 2010. Artic Studies Center.pdf

For the reinstallation of this permanent exhibition on dinosaurs, ELY fabricated more than 300 brass and steel mounts and installed the artifacts, ranging from a tooth 1/8 inches long to a Triceratops skull over 5 feet tall and weighing 1,800 pounds. Several complex mounts were required to articulate partial skeletons, including feet and skulls. Also included in the exhibition is the Fossil Wall, an aesthetic display of 100 fossils, each individually mounted on a vertical surface. The renovated gallery opened in July, 2011. Dinosaur Mysteries.pdf

ELY mounted and installed a diverse collection of James Bond movie props, from a bullet necklace with diamonds to a 10 foot komodo dragon climbing down a wall, for the Spy Museum in 2012. The exhibit includes over 40 flat documents and books, ten mannequins, as well as model helicopters, a jet and a shark head suspended from the ceiling. One of the more challenging objects to mount was a deteriorating rubber octopus that required a mount supporting the length of each arm and cradling its heavily weighted head.  Exquisitely Evil- 50 Years of Bond Villains:Spy Museum.pdf

ELY won the contract to mount 37 beaded artworks to rigid panels or tacked to stretcher frames for the exhibition Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence. The exhibition highlights the work of Ubuhle Beautiful Beads, a community of South African women artisans who work to achieve economic stability for their families while stewarding traditional skills through their crafts. ELY provided custom built stretcher bars and panels and stretched and installed the artworks.