Sometimes people ask for advice on hanging pieces, and by all means I’m happy to help! But my style of hanging work is sometimes a little… makeshift? Artists just get sh*t on the wall (pardon my French :) . I always say better on the wall than not! But I realize that’s not always helpful to folks buying my work, especially with the many silk pieces I’m doing these days. The silk can be confusing since the material behaves so much differently from the usual paper or canvas. I tend to just hang them in the window and watch them flow and play with the light! That’s definitely my favorite way to hang ‘em. Especially pieces with darker colors… they remind me of stained glass the way the light moves through them! But I will admit, if your main priority is preserving and taking care of the piece, the window isn’t the best place to keep em’ bright and pretty. If you want it framed and perfect, this might not be the best advice. But if you’d rather it be on the wall than not on the wall, I can help! Here are the answers to some questions that might help you hang and preserve them on the wall-
My DIY steamer technique (:
How to get wrinkles out? If you have a little garment steamer, that is a great solution! Don’t worry about smearing or damaging the paint, it’ll hold up against steam. Or you can try my DIY steamer- lightly spray some water on the silk and take a hair dryer to it. Better yet, if you prefer traditional ironing, go for it. Be sure to use medium heat and cover it with a sheet first. And spray with clean water!
The feedback I’ve gotten from shipping silks has luckily been pretty wrinkle free- I roll them up in paper and send in a hard cardboard tube. That’s been protecting the sensitive silk pretty well. So hopefully you won’t even have to deal with wrinkles and can get straight to hanging it up!
Here’s the fishing wire method
Okay wrinkles are out. How should I hang it? So here’s where my “just get it on the wall” motto comes into play, do with this info what you will. Some of the silks will come with a dowel sewn on the top of it. If there’s a dowel, fishing wire or a string of your choice on either end can hang from a nail/ tack/ hook, whatever you prefer. The silks are very light so it doesn’t need to be very heavy duty. Or you can set the dowel directly on two nails on either end. If there is no dowel, I’ve taken a liking to magnetic push pins- you tack it in the wall and place the magnet on the out side of the silk, show below. Voila! The little magnets will show, but like I said… better on the wall than not! And better without little tack holes through the silk.
Here I used the magnetic push pins
close up on the dowel-on-nail solution
and here’s how the dowel-on-nail thing looks
What if I want it framed and perfect? Good on ya. If you don’t want to take it to a framer and do the framing yourself, you could just stick it in the right sized frame, it could be that easy. I wish I had the best advice for you, but I think I need to ask my framer friend. I know professionals use archival glass, which is the best way to preserve the colors. They might also sew the silk into foam-core or wrap it around a pre-stretched canvas before framing behind glass. You could try that if you’re feeling confident! I’ll get back to you with the framer’s advice if there’s anything helpful(:
This one was an easy size, I just threw it in a frame with a white mat.
Here’s a long silk framed in a glass pane, that works great!
I have my father in law’s stained glass all around my house, and they’re definitely inspiration for my silks!
Best place to hang? Personally I love hanging them in the window. I can’t resist. I know they say it fades the colors and what not, but I’m not sure how long that takes! Also I heard most residential windows these days filter the UV out… so I’m gonna keep hanging them in windows! You can too if you want. You have the Jamie Calkin seal of approval to watch them fade with me (:
If you’re super worried about preserving the piece’s original condition, I respect that as well. It’s a compliment aint it! For you, out of the way of direct sunlight will be your best bet.
I bought a wearable silk piece… how do I wash it? Oh boy, that’s a can of worms. I’ll have to get back to you on that too (: I’ll go ask my dry cleaner!
Do you still have silk questions? I’m happy to help. Comment below, DM me on Instagram or Facebook, or email my manager at orders@jamiecalkin.com (she’s better at answering emails than me:) And thank you for gettin’ a silk!