More and more, the Walker Display system is becoming the display system of choice for many art centers, galleries, and museums. If you’re an exhibiting artist, you can be sure that at one point in your art exhibiting career, your fiber art piece will be displayed on the Walker Display system. In, this post, I’m going to show you how to prepare fiber art for the Walker Display system.
Ok at this point, you’re thinking, Clara, why do I need to care about how to hang fiber art on the Walker Display system? That’s the exhibition team’s responsibility, not mine. Hear me out, my friend. Yes, that’s the exhibition teams’ responsibility, not yours. But here are some reasons you’ll want to know how to prepare your fiber art for the Walker Display System.
Why You Want to Learn to Prepare Your Fiber Art for the Walker Display System
- If you ever want to mount a solo show, venues with the Walker Display system became a possibility for your show
- More opportunities for entering your work into juried shows become available to you. You can enter your work into more general art shows when you know how to prepare your fiber art to hang on traditional picture display systems
- You can confidently sell your fiber art to collectors who have the Walker Display system or any traditional picture hanging setups. You dispel the notion that fiber art requires extra attention to display.
So now that we’ve got that out of the way, what do you say we now look at exactly how to prepare your fiber art for hanging on the Walker Display system.
3 Supplies You’ll Need to Prepare Your Fiber Art to Hang on the Walker Display System
- A Hanging Sleeve on the Back of Your Art piece
- A Slat (wooden or metal – shown below)
- Picture Wire
To start, we’re going to need a traditional hanging sleeve in the back of your fiber art piece. An important note here. You want your hanging sleeve at least an inch away from the top and two sides. Too often, fiber artists sew their sleeves too high which makes the sleeves show above their piece when it’s hanging in a show.
The next thing we’ll need is a wooden or metallic slat with holes at both ends. You can buy wooden slats at the home improvement store. Ask them to cut it to size for you if you do need that type of help. They’ll be happy to oblige you.
Here are examples,
-
Slide your Slat Through Your Hanging Sleeve
2. Thread Picture Wire Through Hole in the Slat
3. Twist Extra Wire Around
4.Braid Excess Wire
- Pull the Picture Wire All the Way to the Other End While Keeping it Taut
6. Cut off Picture Wire Leaving an Extra Piece for Braiding
7. Tape Braided Wire to Avoid Sharp Ends
8. Your Fiber Art Piece is Wired and Ready to Hang on A Walker Display System
Now you’re ready to hang your fiber art piece on any traditional picture hanging system whether with hooks, nails or on the Walker Display System.
The Walker Display System has a special setup for hanging textile pieces called the Walker Textile Display System. It involves a pair of velcro strips. One strip is attached to the back of your fiber art piece and the other velcro piece is on the wall. So you can easily hang by fixing the two to each other.
Although this is a super duper easy way to hang textile work, most venues are more likely to have the standard Walker Display system than the custom Textile system. So, it’s prudent to learn how to use the generic version, since you’re more likely to come across that than the textile version.
And now here’s a look at Under the Microscope #2) wired using this method, hanging nicely on a Walker Display system.
Warmest Regards,
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