adhesive for felt

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framanista

CGF II, Certified Grumble Framer Level 2
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Our customer’s mother sewed 52 arrowheads of various sizes to a big piece of bright green felt. They then stretched it over a frame and it hung on the wall where the felt gradually stretched and sagged under the weight of the arrowheads. Nobody wants to re-sew them, and they want to keep the felt.

My boss wants to glue the felt to gatorboard or luan. My question is what type of adhesive will work? Tacky glue?
Thanks everyone.
 
I would use a fabric glue like that from Frank's of Raphael's. Roll it on the backing, lay the felt down. If needed you can use an iron to reactivate the adhisive.

I'm sure Baer will have more to say on this.
 
Dave, I want to watch you iron a piece of felt that has 52 arrowheads sewn on it.

Tacky glue should work for attaching felt to a backing board. Except that this particular piece of felt has stretched and sagged. Felt is a non-woven fabric; no amount of glue or prayer is going to get it to lay flat again.

You know in your heart of hearts that the arrowheads should be resewn. If the customer doesn't want to pay you to do it, suggest she do it herself.

Kit
 
It's really crazy some of the things customers get in their heads. Is it the felt or the arrowheads that has value to them? But hey, at least Mom didn't attach them with gobs of silicone.

But if you just gotta do it, use a fabric adhesive and get it as close to flat as you can and make no promises.
 
There are many, many, things I’d like to tell customers to go and do themselves. Alas, it is not my place, as an employee, to tell them that.

The felt is not so stretched out that it won’t lay flat when it’s on the table. I guess they didn’t have it up for that long. Believe it or not, this is arrowheads-sewn-to-felt project #2 for this family. When #1 got really saggy, Mom redid it--the same way!
faintthud.gif
 
Ok, Dave started this one.... (he's trying to earn dinner via me flying out there to take him to dinner :D )

first lay the felt face down and kind of daub a little fabric glue on the stitches. All of them. Let dry.

Then roll out the glue on the gatorboard and mount wet.

<font size=7>OR</font>

Make stretcher bars. Stretch nylon window screen screening over bars. Then stretch the felt over the screening.

Give back to customer. Have them take a new stitch THROUGH the screen and felt for EACH arrowhead. This way the screen supports the AHs, not an unwoven fiber.
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I'm outta my league here, but the first thing that came to mind, given the description of the piece, was Perfect Mount, or 'sticky-board'. It would seem wise to get it positioned as well as possible, start peeling the cover off the Perfect Mount, start the felt there, then s-l-o-w-l-y peel the cover off the PM, while laying the felt on the sticky part as you go.

Then, maybe try one of those narrow rolling thingies(I forget the name) and further apply pressure to the felt. Let stand for 12~24 hours. I haven't seen much the PM wouldn't hold. And...if necessary, you can still sew the heavier items through the PM.

Just an idea from one who used to like PM.

Best of luck, whichever way you go!


(saw this later)

Originally posted by Emibub:
An artifact that makes it through time like that I would be disinclined to use any kind of glue.
Click to expand...
Kathy's right. It was on another thread, but the point is still valid. In your situation, the felt would protect the arrowheads from any nasty old liquid glue.


EDIT! :
Once again: It's been a long time since I even SAW any PM, and there are framers that have forgotten more than I ever knew...so, as Ellen says, Take what you can use, and leave the rest, or all of it.

[ 02-12-2005, 02:40 AM: Message edited by: CharlesL ]
 
Originally posted by Baer Charlton:
Make stretcher bars. Stretch nylon window screen screening over bars. Then stretch the felt over the screening.

Give back to customer. Have them take a new stitch THROUGH the screen and felt for EACH arrowhead. This way the screen supports the AHs, not an unwoven fiber.
thumbsup.gif
Click to expand...
That's an excellent idea!
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I'll see if they'll go for that.
Thanks for your input everyone!
 
Framinista,
I was befuddled by your post on the other thread and here we are in this thread.....now I get it.

I think your customers deserve a pat on the back for at least realizing the importance of what they were framing and knowing better than to introduce glue as their choice of mounting. They aren't even trained professionals like those on the other discussion. So, hats off to the goofy family and their sagging felt arrowheads!
 
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