are there any ways to make your own mesh display walls (or other homemade ways) to hang wall art safely in an art show tent? This would be a temporary thing.
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We used pvc pipe, and wire mesh and covered it with uphostery fabric and hang our art with drapery hooks which goes thru the fabric to hook onto the wire mesh. Cheap, lightweight and it looks good.
Jane Brewster > Barbara ForrestMay 31, 2011 at 10:51am
We put some more pvc extensions on it and then we bungie it to the booth frame. We also bungie the panels together at the bottoms. Attached is a pic of the booth using the panels.
Appreciate this forum --- great ideas! I'm thinking of going with the Flourish panels --- I have framed paintings under glass, and they'll need the support of the stabilizer bars on top and bottom of the mesh panels, and strong material to hang on. I'm trading these for the aluminum panels made by Graphic Display Systems, another great company. I also need the mesh panels to cut the summer sun (sorry, Alison, black polyester fabric won't do in this situation) and allow breezes to pass through the tent. My experience is that lighter artwork has more display options --- heavy stuff like my framed paintings requires as much support as possible.
The show I'm doing in March supplies us with A-Frames that are homemade. They are basically a 2 x 4 frame, covered with wire mesh, and then covered with burlap. The frames are hinged at the top to form a two sided "A" frame display. Curtain type hooks are supplied to the artists. If you wanted to do something similar, you could use a lighter wood, like a 2 x 2, especially if you were putting them inside a tent.
I've also seen panels you can buy with wood lattice work in the middle and a 2 x 2 frame around the edges. You can buy them hinged together for a room divider. If you started with those you could cover them first with wire mesh, then some heavy fabric.
If you dismantle the arms off a home clothing dryer - the white plastic covered inhouse clothing dryer - take off plastic plug bottoms, cut off any end round sections, masking tape the tops - you can push the upside down V into the ground and lean or masking tape art against the sides.
It will display 2 large paintings per side or a bunch of smaller art works. If displaying outside, place in ground against prevailing wind so wind flows over the top. To keep bottom of painting clean of ground debri or dirt, cut up some carpet sections to place the paintings on. And, don't forget to tape the smaller arms together too as it will display the smaller paintings.
I use this low cost display system in an art & craft market in the 'adventure capital of the world', Queenstown NZ where sometimes, the prevailing wind can exceed 10-15mph. At the end of the day, it's a matter of just folding them up which makes for easey peasy, light transporting! In addition to this low cost display, you can also join the dryer-sections together, (masking tape), for a hanging framework against a tent wall and plier-turn one end to hang from the cross-member tent pole.
If anyone wants an image, please leave me a note and I'll place up a coupla 'market shots' or email you an image! Kiwis are known the world over for their No. 8 wire mentality, (you may have to google that), so after winter, use that home indoor clothing dryer - it's a proven, profitable method to display art - at a real low cost! Cheers from downunder!
A few years ago I looked into making my own mesh panels, and the raw materials for anything strong enough to hang art from would have cost far more than purchasing the ready made mesh panels from Flourish. I did end up purchasing the Flourish panels and used them successfully for two seasons. However, I did make my own covers from a black polyester fabric (purchased at WalMart for $1 a yard) and they worked very well and were much less expensive than the Flourish covers. I have now graduated to Propanels and they are worth every penny - I made my money back in increased sales the first year. The least expensive way to hang a booth is to purchase metal grid walls, especially if you can buy them used (check with retail stores going out of business, other artist who are upgrading, or your local recycling center). They are heavy, but very sturdy and inexpensive, and you can always turn around and sell them when you are done with them.
thanks! I think I'm gonna try something like you've suggested.
Connie Mettler said:
Hi Beth, I think there was a discussion of this sometime back on this site--try the search box. There are lots of things besides the mesh, for homemade an idea I heard was buying painters dropcloths, they are very large and inexpensive, then they need to be stretched and clamped to your tent frame somehow. What about using 1 x 1's to make a frame and stapling these cloths to the frame? How many would you need? In fact, you could make them six feet tall or 3 x 3 feet and figure out some way to attach them to one another.
Replies
I have found a lot of useful techniques at this blog:
http://faso.com/fineartviews/20870/art-display-systems-for-art-fest...
I've also seen panels you can buy with wood lattice work in the middle and a 2 x 2 frame around the edges. You can buy them hinged together for a room divider. If you started with those you could cover them first with wire mesh, then some heavy fabric.
Tai Ward-Holmes said:
Alison Armstrong said:
Connie Mettler said:
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