Displaying tapestries

Silvia Gonzales <silvia.gonzales [at] umfa__utah__edu>

>I have a contemporary tapestry that is going to be on long-term
>display (10 years). The tapestry has a cotton backing with Velcro,
>which I am using to hang it to the wall. I am concerned about
>hanging it directly on the wall so I would like to use a different
>system.

Your museum will have a controlled environment, and so large
dimensional changes of the tapestry will be unlikely. Nevertheless,
the shapes woven together that form the structure of the tapestry
may naturally cause undulation, even if this is not obvious, of the
fabric, and so stretching it to a frame may not be the best option;
the fact that it is a textile will be seen to best advantage (in my
opinion, at least) if it is allowed to hang to its own shape, and it
will be strong enough not to need a support.

We would cover a board several inches deep and the width of the
object with velcro, and line the tapestry very loosely with a
scoured cotton twill, with possibly another length of cotton between
it and the wall, to prevent build-up of dust and dirt on the reverse
side.

I hope that this will be of some use, whichever option you choose,

Patricia Hughes,
Albion Conservation Consultancy, UK and USA


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 20:35
                 Distributed: Monday, January 15, 2007
                       Message Id: cdl-20-35-002
                                  ***