The Hardware Store Solution
This week I have to send "Thistles" to the Slater Memorial Art Museum for our Fiber Revolution exhibition, Diversity. The sleeve is on the back of the quilt and I had a wooden slat prepared, complete with new eye screws and a scrubbing with sandpaper to make the surface nice and smooth.
But I can't send the wooden slat.
The Museum has requested that we include a flat slat with holes so that when the piece is hanging it doesn't protrude from the wall, so the nails can keep a low profile. A wooden slat, for what the museum has in mind, might be too thick. Many Fiber Revolution members already use telescoping curtain rods instead of wooden slats as hanging mechanisms, and we were all encouraged to follow suit. And thus is was that I went searching for one.
Alas, my piece is too narrow to use a curtain rod; it's only 16 inches wide. None of the rods collapse into such a small dimension. I suppose I should have expected that -- windows aren't that tiny and I certainly wasn't going to special order something.
Thankfully, our local hardware store is stocked floor to ceiling with all sorts of things, including this metal slat that I found in the plumbing department.
I don't know what the slat is supposed to be used for, but it's a perfect metal hanger. It's solid enough not to warp or bend, but light enough not to tear through the sleeve. The holes along the edge make mounting with nails very easy. The hardware store staff cut this piece to my specifications (the original metal piece was three feet long). I made sure that the measurement I gave landed between holes. Then, the gentleman kindly used a grinding machine to smooth the edges. I scrubbed it with a household cleaner to get rid of any grease and dirt, and labelled it with a permanent marker. I chose not to include the title of my piece so that I can recycle the slat for another artwork.
I think this is a solution I will likely turn to again and again. What do you think of it?
Do you have any unique hanging solutions?
But I can't send the wooden slat.
The Museum has requested that we include a flat slat with holes so that when the piece is hanging it doesn't protrude from the wall, so the nails can keep a low profile. A wooden slat, for what the museum has in mind, might be too thick. Many Fiber Revolution members already use telescoping curtain rods instead of wooden slats as hanging mechanisms, and we were all encouraged to follow suit. And thus is was that I went searching for one.
Alas, my piece is too narrow to use a curtain rod; it's only 16 inches wide. None of the rods collapse into such a small dimension. I suppose I should have expected that -- windows aren't that tiny and I certainly wasn't going to special order something.
Thankfully, our local hardware store is stocked floor to ceiling with all sorts of things, including this metal slat that I found in the plumbing department.
I don't know what the slat is supposed to be used for, but it's a perfect metal hanger. It's solid enough not to warp or bend, but light enough not to tear through the sleeve. The holes along the edge make mounting with nails very easy. The hardware store staff cut this piece to my specifications (the original metal piece was three feet long). I made sure that the measurement I gave landed between holes. Then, the gentleman kindly used a grinding machine to smooth the edges. I scrubbed it with a household cleaner to get rid of any grease and dirt, and labelled it with a permanent marker. I chose not to include the title of my piece so that I can recycle the slat for another artwork.
I think this is a solution I will likely turn to again and again. What do you think of it?
Do you have any unique hanging solutions?
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Carole Hoffman