Silk Fabric

[TGFU]

A customer brought in a 52x52 decorative silk piece from Japan. It also has silk fringe on all 4 sides. Any suggestions on mounting? Since it's larger than a 40x60 rag mat, any ideas on what I can use to mount it on? The fringe is also an issue, especially the top. The customer doesn't want the fringe on the top to fall down....which would cover the top of the decorative design. Is there a way to get the fringe to all lay out flat without having to sew each piece down?

Thanks,
Jim

 

[Jim Miller]

As Vivian says, "We're framers, not magicians".

A customer brought in a 52x52 decorative silk piece from Japan. It also has silk fringe on all 4 sides. Any suggestions on mounting?

Since you said "decorative", I guess preservation is not an issue? Anyway, I would design a good and durable frame, because this thing should be expected to last a loooong time. Non-invasive is much better now and later, and not much more costly than destructive methods.

I suggest pieceing together a laminated mount board using pieces of 4 mm Coroplast in two layers, flutes crossed, with a cap of matched-bevel pieces of 4-ply alphacellulose board (white side up). To make the splices of 4-ply less visible, "tape" them with pasted strips of Japanese hinging paper, torn edges (not cut) or very thin fabric. PVA glue would work for the assembly, dried under weights, or lots and lots of double-sided tape strips, such as 3M #889.

In my shop, the silk art would be sewn to a piece of fabric, by running stitches/basting loosely all around the perimeter, plus some loose horizontal stitch-lines throughout the center section. The fabric should ideally have enough texture to mask the seams in the mount board. Moire silk would be nice, or a faux version of same.

Making the top-edge fringe stand up is the tricky part. I would use Crepeline (silk) or Stabiltex (polyester) fine mesh fabric, neatly folded over the fringe, and that would be sewn to the backing fabric, as well, using three or four horizontal stitch-lines. For consistent appearance, and to retain it in case the frame is turned over, you probably should sew down the fringe on all sides.

After the art is attached to the fabric, stretch it over the prepared board. I suggest using acrylic medium as the fabric adhesive, painted on the back edges, dried, then activated by ironing on the fabric wrapped around the board's edges.

Use a sturdy frame of about 1-1/2" depth or more. Clear acrylic would be my choice, CYRO OP-3 for 98% UV filtering. Or, if money is not an issue, sell Optium Museum Acrylic, which now comes in 72" x 120" x 6 mm size.

I love job$ like thi$, becau$e nobody el$e in my neighborhood want$ them.

 

[trofeo]

i framed a turkish rug once that had fringe on the top edge, and the client wanted the fringe to go up.
i wound up basically pedestal floating the rug on artcare foam over fabric. i spent time matching the silk thread, and then i threaded horozontal stiches back and forth across the top fringe, at the top, middle and bottom of the hinge lengths, camouflaging it with the fringe itself. i also then sewed some of the fringe down going vertically, which basically looked like more fringe if noticed at all. then we made a cabinet, (the client wanted to be able to open it and show guests the quality of the rug on the underside.. i built him a matching box for gloves so he could touch the rug.. hopefully he uses them!)
this was 2 years ago, and the fringe is still standing, but i think jim's idea sounds much much much more professional/easy/fast/better for the art in general. the rug looked awesome when i was done, but i lost money on all the time i spent sewing and running around learning about rugs.
but it did look really nice.. (the client didn't like the idea of covering the fringe at first when i suggested that, but i didn't know about the materials jim suggested, so maybe if i'd had some on hand to show them, they wouldn't have objected..? and i would've avoided sewing for three hours!)
good luck!