Need mounting suggestions

[joemac]

For Christmas, I made my daughters each a plaque with their baptismal certificate lazered into the surface. They are walnut burl which I resawed from a slab, then jointed and joined to make bookmatched blanks. I then tries some string inlay for decoration. Each was to be 1/2" thick.

Plans to me are just suggestions. (Not by choice, but by error correction) as they came out just a bit over 1/4" thick each after the three times I finished, sanded and re-finished them. Here it is over two weeks after Christmas and I am putting the final coat of lacquer on today.

I envisioned them as wall hangings with a wire strung across the back to mount on a wall. 1/4" is a tough thickness to put mounting screws into. Any ideas on what I could use to hold mounting hardware onto the rear of my creations?

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[blackhat]

I might be inclined to glue 4, 3/8 thick strips to the back, inset an inch or so from the edges to leave a shadow line. Cut a keyhole slot in the top strip before gluing it on.

[Steve N]

Awesome wood, and beautiful work Joe

Any thought to mounting them to a frame where you can provide some backing? My biggest concern if this is larger than 12 x 12" is that it could cup badly, and over time end up looking like a scroll. What to frame that wood in would be the question, the wood is so alive I think you would want something sedate, maybe just plain sawn Walnut. I don't think it would remain a WIN if the frame competed with the burl.