My First Art Show

Materials for making fixtures

One thing that artists and everyone else all can agree on....framing is freaking expensive. I understand why it's expensive. There are a lot of materials involved, and mounting matting and framing artwork is not particularly easy so like anything that involves a special skill, the price goes up.

Close up of fixture edge

Like many artists, I don't have a large amount of excess capital lying around for framing. So, I decided to make my own fixtures for my silk hangings.

I purchased pine molding and cut it to size. Then I cut strips of black felt cloth and used craft glue to fix the felt to the inside of one side of the pine molding. I then sandwiched two pieces of pine molding together and clamped them.

I discover the joys of repeated step ladder trips

 Luckily, my father is the sort of person who likes to purchase practical gifts in bulk and then stick them in everyone's stockings at Christmas. Two years back I got a whole bunch of small clamps. I had no clue what I would do with them, but I put them in a coffee cup on my craft table where they sat unused until now.

Chris and Me

After clamping the two pieces together, I drilled holes in the ends of each piece and placed the silk paintings on the felted side of the fixtures. I used small pieces of acid free artists tape to keep the silks in place and pressed the unfelted piece down over the top of the silk.  I then clamped the edges together and used mono-filament fishing line to tie the fixtures.

The finished fixtures are perfect. To hang the pieces in the gallery, I used clear thumbtacks and more fishing line. The silks appear to be floating on the wall, and they look beautiful! 

I had a wonderful day yesterday hanging my very first art show. It means the world to me that Christy Fricks, the owner of Floorspace, and my good friend,  believes in me enough to ask me to be the first artist to exhibit work in her space.

Silk paintings at Floorspace