Really?

Now I’m a little freaked that I’ve made such a “to-do” over my new technique that I’ve been working on that you’re going to be looking at this and going…

 

“Really?”

“You got us all excited about THIS?!”

“Really?”

Okay, well, here it is……

The series of garden rugs that I’ve been working on have areas of flowers and leaves that stick out beyond the normal border of the rug.

Once this was hooked and I was thinking of hanging it, I was wondering how I was going to get it to hang without having the flower and leaf parts just “flopping”.

I took my rugs to “Pelican Gallery” here in Springfield, MO and talked to the owner, Dan, about the best way to hang the rugs.  He came up with the idea of the wire.

Genius actually….he had me use a small gauge wire and twist it to a double thickness to make it stronger…..this way you get a strong wire, but due to the smaller gauge, it is still easy to bend to the shape of the flowers or leaves.  He suggested stainless steel  or galvanized steel, so that the wire would not rust.  He then had me attach it with fishing wire….I used a 12 pound test weight fishing line that Kenny had here at the house.

He also suggested bringing the wire more towards the center of the rug, to give the “sticky-outy” parts more stability once the rug is hung.

So now I have all of the flowers and leaves wired on all 3 garden rugs.  This weekend I will be returning to “Pelican Gallery” to work on the hanging mechanism.  I’ll post more on that process once it gets under way.

Dan approaches everything from an archival point of view, so he is very interesting to talk to about hanging textiles….I’m learning a lot!