First Pressure Mounted Silk Scarf

[Mary Beth van der Horst]

A little while back I got my first silk scarf in for framing. It is a gorgeous Pineda Covalin--the first of a handful this customer owns and may want framed. Of course I looked up the pressure mounted method of direct contact with acrylic and muslin backing, along with some concentrically cut batting behind to make a pillow of pressure behind. It seemed to work pretty well, but I am so overused to working on cross-stitches and needlepoints and getting them exact, that the silk scarf feels so squirrelly by comparison. It didnt help that this design has a very straight line border on the outside so you see some variance on the corners.
I need some hype on this one. This is probably the best I can expect, right? Because I am so tired of getting in and out of this piece and I'm ready to wash my hands of it and call for pickup.

 

[Nikodeumus]

It looks great!
Is the outer frame Eiffel?
What's the inner? Is it a second frame, or a fillet? Looks kind of like Milan.

 

[Mary Beth van der Horst]

@Nikodeumus Yes, the outer is eiffel pewter. The inner is a tiny frame I think from International's mini line. I've been displaying them with my fillets and using them as liners very successfully!

 

[wpfay]

You have reached the point of diminishing returns. Time to call it done.
And...nicely done at that.
One suggestion going forward: Allow yourself a little grace with these and increase the margins so the imperfect parallel edges aren't as noticeable. Give the scarf a little breathing room.
It was likely sewn by hand and is "perfect enough".

 

[Nikodeumus]

Agreed. Given that DCO is probably the safest way to frame silk without causing harm, a certain amount of leeway has to be expected and accepted.

 

[Rick Granick]

Excellent job, Mary Beth. It looks fantastic.
Rick

 

[Ylva]

I think it looks great.
I usually give it more margin, as Wally said. I think you focus on the not straight lines because of that inner frame. No scarf will be perfectly straight, just build that into your design

We all tend to overthink this. I am sure your customer will be thrilled with how it came out. Go call her

 

[Jim Miller]

That's a great job, Mary Beth. When I encountered similar issues with DCO framing of hand-stitched silk scarves, my solution was to use a tightly stretched fabric backing over the polyester batting mountain. Then I lightly tacked each of the four corners to the backing fabric after stretching the scarf juuuust enough to make the perimeter edges straight. Of course, this doesn't work if the tension tends to ruffle the backing fabric, and the corner-tacking has to be loose enough to avoid dimpling the backing fabric.

Don't ask how I know that.

 

[monkey]

That looks really good. Nice design too, good job.

 

[clare]

Absolutely wonderful! This is a wonderful demonstration of the technique. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Gilder]

I think it looks great.