Confessions of a Mad Illustrator

It's very early, and I'm ALMOST done. Just a few tasks away. I have to drop off the art later this morning, at about 9 am. I must say they look really sharp - even though I decided not to paper the backs and I ran out of rubber bumps. The frames seem solid and the wire is a strong grade wire that can hold up to 20 lbs. I'm starting to feel a little more optimistic about this show. Speaking of framing, here are a few steps in attaching the hanging wire to the back. When I worked as a framer back in the day (feels like a million years ago), one of the cardinal rules of hanging wire is that it has to be strong and not too slack, or the picture will pitch forward in an unattractive way. The spacing between the ends of the wire is important too, all about physics, really. You have to be aware of weight distribution and all that loveliness. Here are some of the tools I've been working with:

I went into auto-pilot during matting, so regretfully I don't have any pictures of those in progress - but this is the mat cutter I use. The rest is wire cutters, the wire of course, flat head screwdriver, and these little things called glazier points - usually used for setting glass in windows.

Before you put the wire on, it's important to make sure there's no trash between the mat and the glass. Nothing irks me more than little pieces of cardboard or eraser crumbs. It looks totally amateurish to not be mindful of cleaning it out before you seal the back.

You can push the glazier points in with the flathead. They add some security to the cardboard backing of the frame, to keep it from falling out.

Fortunately these frames from Michaels have eyelets attached to the cardboard backing, so I just run the wire through, bend it, and make a loop. I will wrap the excess wire tightly around to give it strength.

I cut the wire using wire cutters, and wrap the wire just as before on the other side.

Pulling the center of the wire hanging lets you see what slack you have. It really shouldn't go much beyond the bottom of the top piece of the frame. Any more and you have too much slack, causing the picture to pitch forward on the wall.

And that's pretty much it. Now I need to make sure my paperwork is ready, printed out, and everything is labeled properly. I am really tired; but it will be done, and I can relax - this is the BIG project of the quarter, thankfully.

Go visit Poetter Hall gallery this week to check them out!

*Note: The "Murderous Ladies" aren't going in after all, which blows - instead I'm recycling "Aeschrolaetrea" and "Bibliopole", because they're fun and fit in with the ensemble. The only thing is I'm down to 17 pieces instead of 20. The gallery is small enough, however, that I should fill up the wall space regardless.