My regular readers know that since since the pandemic I’ve been having fortnightly zoom chats with a group of stitchers, that was started in a trial by the organisers of StitchClub using their Zoomn account at whatever time we decided to meet. When that trial ended, we had become good friends and wanted to continue our fortnightly calls, so one of our members came good with her own Zoom account, and we’ve continued that way. Since then everyone in the group has met up in person with at least one other member. Admittedly we do sometimes veer off into general topics, but we never stray for long or go too far from things to do with stitching and embroidery as we discuss what the others are working on, workshops taken, who’s sold something, or exhibiting somewhere. We mention interesting stitch-related books, magazine articles and sometimes recommend links to websites the others would find interesting.
Earlier this week we got onto the topic of working with sheer fabrics, and as a couple of them have done a SC workshop involving tulle, I sent a link to https://www.instagram.com/joanna.kara.art/, whose works I found on IG; and Nancy of CA mentioned an artist https://www.christinemauersberger.com/ whose work she’d once seen in an exhibition. I mentioned how interested I am in sheer fabrics, but that I am sometimes a bit bothered about how light delicate constructions that cast interesting lace patterns on the wall behind so often have clunky hanging arrangements that seem to me quite out of keeping with the delicacy of the work. Nancy didn’t think it mattered if the work is very long and hung from high up, as such works often are I agree to a point, but not everyone wants to make lengthy works, including myself. I’m considering placing a few grommets along the top in several places, which could give a drapey look appropriate for some, but I think tulle is not strong enough as they could easily be torn out of the work – but organza would be fine.
I’ve mentioned using plastic as a background ‘fabric’, and just remembered this number from 2020 https://www.alisonschwabe.com/weblog/?p=5666 – a StitchClub workshop project with teacher Merrill Comeau
That really led on to discussion about a question Ali raised, asking how artists cope with managing all the different hanging systems that galleries use. I guess there’s no definitive answer here, but exhibition calls sometimes stipulate that framed works must hang with D-rings or something else in particular; and I see that as a matter between artist and gallery in an ongoing relationship. For my own 2D works which are primarily wall quilts, the rod or slat through a hanging sleeve on the back works well with all systems, but in my recent exhibition I mounted some small pieces on unframed artist canvases, which I felt looked good, as these days people often simply hang them without frames. Other 3D pieces I presented as table-top works – which is how I always saw them myself, but they could also be attached to artist canvases and hung on the wall that way, or placed in a frame, or even just hung unmounted and unframed directly onto the wall. I am considering making something larger to show that way, but we’ll see.
With light 2D or 3D works, sometime a motorised slowly revolving display unit hanging from the ceiling would be lovely whether it’s made of something sheer or something more solid and 3D.
My point is that it is really important to consider how I’ll present/display my work during the early planning stages, not to have to rig up something once the last stitch is done, as such last minute solutions are often less effective and some look very amateurish. For example, in this irregular shaped wall quilt stiffening for the upper edges was built in during the construction stage: and the hanging sleeve placed so that the top of it never appears above the lowest dip in the wavy top. It’s unfortunate that many artists cut the top of an otherwise wonderfully irregular shaped quilt straight across the top to avoid those issues – but I wrote a 2020 post on it and another method of hanging such a quilt – https://www.alisonschwabe.com/weblog/?p=5925
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