Plaques, as in wooden award or other plaques are a great source for bases. I have three of them now, two 12 x 9 and a smaller one. They are hardwood and heavy. All I have to do is sand them down to make them accept glue and I am in business. Thrift shops and places like that are good sources for these... or your plaques from your old units that you do not care about...

Just about every craft store has and assortment of unfinished plaques. They are different shapes and sizes. All that one would need to do is to sand them down, stain and then apply varnish. They usually run anywhere from $0.50 to $5.00 a piece.

I just use stained pieces of wood that my grandpa has laying around his shop. They seem to have worked fine, and its free. The plaque thing sounds like a good gig.

Thanks!

~cHiP

Another good source... go to your local "dollar disocunt store"... they often have some nice picture frames with guilded edges and nice shapes - for a dollar! Some are plastic, some are wood..... I take out the glass and replace it with cardboard or styrofoam then apply my turf or street treatments.... quite fancy for a buck!

And I guess I can't pass up the plug for the article I did on making your own "fancy" bases from plastic container lids and plaster of paris.... there is an article in Digital Diamonds (#5) and this is also the technique I used for the base in "Modest Sabotage"... just poured plaster into a pastry lid and got a really nice scalloped edge. Add a little felt fabric to the botton so it won't scratch the bookcase, and you're done!

When using a wooden base, what do you coat it with so any moisture in the "Ground" does not warp the wood?