Once you move away from metal as the core material of the pieces you are usually leaving the front line behind and moving into the realms of prison camps and hospitals, neither of which have easy access to scrap metal.

Wood is a natural alternative, readily available and easy to work with. The construction of small picture frames sits well in this period of social history. Postcards were in their ‘Golden Age’, with millions being sent between the Front and families at home (in all combatant nations). Portrait photographs were common, so making a trench art frame to place a postcard of your loved on in was an ideal project.

The example below is classic, made by a member of the Royal Naval Division while interned at Groningen in Holland after fleeing across the border after the fall of Antwerp as the Germans swept into Belgium in 1914.