Framing an heirloom

As I mentioned yesterday, my weekend DIY projects were a mixed bag of hits and misses.  One of the misses was my attempt to frame a delicate family heirloom. 

When we visited my grandparents in Florida a few months back, my grandma gave me a beautiful painted leather purse with matching mirror pouch and change purse that my great-grandmother had bought in Italy in the 1920s or 30s.  The purse is especially meaningful because it's one of the very few possessions that my grandparents (Holocaust survivors) have that belonged to them before the war.  The dark greenish color is a very pretty teal, that is not accurately portrayed in the picture.  The background in the photo is a matching teal mounting board.

I bought a simple shadowbox frame and the teal mounting board, and played around with different methods of hanging the three items (nylon thread... ribbon... no luck).

Soon realized that I probably don't have the supplies and tools necessary to properly mount them without causing any damage.  And, since they're meaningful family heirlooms, I don't want to risk unknowingly using acidic or other harmful materials.  Some things are best left to professionals!  Luckily, no damage done.  I'll just have to save my pennies for a real framing job!