Pixlescapes asked me about this process and asked me to post this information on the WC site.

It’s a simple process. I usually work on the paintings themselves either on a stretcher strips or just stapled to the wall.

1. When the painting is dry I seal it with thinned gel gloss medium.

2. I take it down and fold over the edges and paste them with thick gel
gloss medium to make the canvas square (as in the corners square). I usually
mark with a pencil lines to guide the fold. I turn in the corners first 90
degrees to the lines paste then fold the sides to the line, and paste (this
gives the corners a nice square, finished look).

3. Now, this is important you have to staple the corners and stretch the
canvas gently by the corners to keep the gel gloss from shrinking the
canvas. Therefore, you must have a staple proof surface to work on while
pasting the edges. If you don’t, you will have a painting that is puffy in
the middle and it will look slightly gathered from the edges. Also, while
the edges dry the painting needs to lie flat, face down or else the canvas
will stretch out of shape and you’ll have a painting that is curved and
droopy in the middle. (Come to think about it, might be fun to try to
manipulate the painting in this fashion, my next project )

4. After the edges dry, I glue on Velcro to the top edge, tacking it down
again to keep it from shrinking (I usually use the soft side on the painting
itself). The glue being thick gel gloss medium again.

5, Finally for the hanging apparatus I use a piece of wall shelving brace
(it’s the kind that is made of aluminum, has several rectangle holes in it,
attaches to the wall and the shelves it’s intended for are boards) It is
about 1/2″ wide and comes in various lengths. I glue with thick gel gloss
the rough side of the Velcro. When all is dry, you can attach the Velcroed
shelving piece to the wall — being able to find a stud through the holes in
the aluminum and smack the painting up on the wall with Velcro. They look
great! They seem to float next to the wall.

There are several reasons why I choose to do tapestry hung canvases, a few
being : They look really great on the wall, and add a unique and interesting
piece to the environment they are in; As described on my website, they have
a tendency to become part of the environment – paintings to live with; My
studio is really small and I like to work big so the finished paintings are
easily stored, shipped and transported. You can just roll them up typically painting side out. (!NEVER FOLD A TAPESTRY HUNG PAINTING you will NEVER get the fold lines out! Also, if they have been rolled for a while it can take up to 3 full days for them to relax enough to hang nicely, a warm room is much quicker than a cold room — relaxation time also depends on how tightly they have been rolled as well.) and put
them in a 4″+ PVC pipe and they will be well protected. I can put about 20 –
5’x7′ paintings in the back seat of my car!

I have spent many hours perfecting this technique, I experimented with every
conceivable way to present my paintings with ease of transport, and space
and this technique works well.

I had a woman buy several pieces to place on the concave curved wall on her
stairs and a couple to put on her convex walls at the bottom of her steps.

I usually photograph the paintings before I seal them or begin the tapestry
hanging process. I will have to take a quick photo at the gallery where I
have some hanging.(my house is too small to hang my own work! It will be
a couple of days before I can get down there. I will post it them with this
post on the forums, probably in the technique section. It’s been a while
since I hung out at WC — I miss you all, but I have been extremely busy.

Hope to get back to WC and the gang
Mellryn

——————
My site and my mail –

[*] Feminine Desert
[*] [email][email protected][/email]

[This message has been edited by Mellryn (edited July 06, 2000).]