Advice needed

Ladies and gentlemen I need advice from the experts here.

I recently finished this crochet wall-hanging as part of an online display
which you will see down below.
I have it hanging on a wall but I'm concerned it will be ruined with dust
etc.
Would you recommend having it framed? It is 17 x 23 inches. I am not sure
what to do.
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We are proud to announce the opening of our
2008 International Freefrom Fiberart Guild Challenge:
"Through Our Eyes"
http://www.intff.org

There is an index and here's a link to my piece
http://www.intff.org/pages/2008%20%20TYE/TYEedna.html

Edna in Sydney

Wow! That is wonderful. I love the crochet. I'm not sure if I'd frame
it. I'm now in a phase of
letting things breathe and be free and open. If it gets dusty etc. it
is part of living. I know
that you will want to preserve it. If you can't let it be out in the
open, I would consider
an archival framing. A deep box, museum quality glass.
I'm not an expert in preserving anything, lol, so, that is a guess.
alicia in Hawaii
www.curiosities808.wordpress.com

Edna wrote:
I recently finished this crochet wall-hanging as part of an online display
which you will see down below.
I have it hanging on a wall but I'm concerned it will be ruined with dust
etc.
Would you recommend having it framed? It is 17 x 23 inches. I am not sure
what to do.
There is an index and here's a link to my piece
http://www.intff.org/pages/2008%20%20TYE/TYEedna.html

Edna in Sydney

I made a large stuffed cat in wool blanketing with the peculiar
Australian crewel and silk and gold thread embroidery on it. It sat in
a corner of my living room.

It is now ruined. Dust has taken its toll and I'm not able to clean it
with a vacuum. There is a brick inside, so I would imagine taking it to
the cleaners would be impossible.

Your piece is lovely. If it were mine, after having gone through the
grief of my cat, I would frame it with a deep enough frame so that the
crochet doesn't touch the glass. A good framer will know what to do.
There are also tables with glass tops made especially to hold
"treasures". I know a woman who has shown off her knitted lace and
stumpwork embroidery in this type enclosure. Just a thought.

Dianne

--
Embroidery Discussions at http://www.heritageshoppe.com/smf

Dianne Lewandowski wrote:
Edna wrote:
I recently finished this crochet wall-hanging as part of an online
display which you will see down below.
I have it hanging on a wall but I'm concerned it will be ruined with
dust etc.
Would you recommend having it framed? It is 17 x 23 inches. I am not
sure what to do.
There is an index and here's a link to my piece
http://www.intff.org/pages/2008%20%20TYE/TYEedna.html

Edna in Sydney

I made a large stuffed cat in wool blanketing with the peculiar
Australian crewel and silk and gold thread embroidery on it. It sat in
a corner of my living room.

It is now ruined. Dust has taken its toll and I'm not able to clean it
with a vacuum. There is a brick inside, so I would imagine taking it to
the cleaners would be impossible.

Your piece is lovely. If it were mine, after having gone through the
grief of my cat, I would frame it with a deep enough frame so that the
crochet doesn't touch the glass. A good framer will know what to do.
There are also tables with glass tops made especially to hold
"treasures". I know a woman who has shown off her knitted lace and
stumpwork embroidery in this type enclosure. Just a thought.

Dianne


Dianne, did you try sprinkling your cat with 'powdered magnesia' (I'm
not entirely sure what that is, chemically, but you can get it from most
pharmacists')? I had a huge needlepoint that got ruined by smoke from an
open fireplace and the powdered magnesia (Mum's idea) got most of the
greasy, black yuck out of it. Sadly, the piece will never be the same
again, but it was very, very dirty and is now reasonably clean. I tried
using talcum powder first and the chemist said that was not helpful.
Something about the talc makes it difficult to brush out again...

I keep a baby's hairbrush (very thick and extremely soft) for dusting my
needlework pieces. Our house is just a street away from the depot of a
large civil engineering company and so there are huge machines going
past at all hours of the night and day. We get dreadful dust from the
crud that blows off their tyres and the diesel that blows out of their
exhausts. Most of my pieces are done on white linda cloth and so the
dust shows quite clearly (when it's there), but a light once-over with
the baby brush is very effective at keeping things clean.

Edna, if your crochet is washable, it'd probably be easy enough to give
it a soak in some orvus or woolwash when it's grubby. You'd need to be
very patient in allowing it to dry naturally on towels and then block it
carefully while it's still dampish, but I think that would do the trick.
I s'pose it all depends what kind of wool you used, really.

What do others think?

--
Trish {|:-} Newcastle, NSW, Australia

We live on a busy main road and everthing gets really dusty.

Glass box sounds good, I used to have one but not sure what I did with it.

Edna


"alicia in Hawaii" wrote in message
...
Wow! That is wonderful. I love the crochet. I'm not sure if I'd frame
it. I'm now in a phase of
letting things breathe and be free and open. If it gets dusty etc. it
is part of living. I know
that you will want to preserve it. If you can't let it be out in the
open, I would consider
an archival framing. A deep box, museum quality glass.
I'm not an expert in preserving anything, lol, so, that is a guess.
alicia in Hawaii
www.curiosities808.wordpress.com

Deep frame is a good idea, I will look into it along with a glass top table.

Sorry about your cat.

Edna

"Dianne Lewandowski" wrote in message
...
Edna wrote:
I recently finished this crochet wall-hanging as part of an online
display which you will see down below.
I have it hanging on a wall but I'm concerned it will be ruined with dust
etc.
Would you recommend having it framed? It is 17 x 23 inches. I am not sure
what to do.
There is an index and here's a link to my piece
http://www.intff.org/pages/2008%20%20TYE/TYEedna.html

Edna in Sydney

I made a large stuffed cat in wool blanketing with the peculiar Australian
crewel and silk and gold thread embroidery on it. It sat in a corner of
my living room.

It is now ruined. Dust has taken its toll and I'm not able to clean it
with a vacuum. There is a brick inside, so I would imagine taking it to
the cleaners would be impossible.

Your piece is lovely. If it were mine, after having gone through the
grief of my cat, I would frame it with a deep enough frame so that the
crochet doesn't touch the glass. A good framer will know what to do.
There are also tables with glass tops made especially to hold "treasures".
I know a woman who has shown off her knitted lace and stumpwork embroidery
in this type enclosure. Just a thought.

Dianne

--
Embroidery Discussions at http://www.heritageshoppe.com/smf

Trish the wall-hanging is a combination of different types of yarn, antique
buttons, tiny wooden cotton reels with dyed thread, thread crochet, silk
ribbon and more.
I wouldn't want to try and wash it.

I forgot to say in the original message we live on a busy main road and
everything gets really dusty.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

Edna

"Trish Brown" wrote in message
node...
Dianne Lewandowski wrote:
Edna wrote:
I recently finished this crochet wall-hanging as part of an online
display which you will see down below.
I have it hanging on a wall but I'm concerned it will be ruined with
dust etc.
Would you recommend having it framed? It is 17 x 23 inches. I am not
sure what to do.
There is an index and here's a link to my piece
http://www.intff.org/pages/2008%20%20TYE/TYEedna.html

Edna in Sydney

I made a large stuffed cat in wool blanketing with the peculiar
Australian crewel and silk and gold thread embroidery on it. It sat in a
corner of my living room.

It is now ruined. Dust has taken its toll and I'm not able to clean it
with a vacuum. There is a brick inside, so I would imagine taking it to
the cleaners would be impossible.

Your piece is lovely. If it were mine, after having gone through the
grief of my cat, I would frame it with a deep enough frame so that the
crochet doesn't touch the glass. A good framer will know what to do.
There are also tables with glass tops made especially to hold
"treasures". I know a woman who has shown off her knitted lace and
stumpwork embroidery in this type enclosure. Just a thought.

Dianne


Dianne, did you try sprinkling your cat with 'powdered magnesia' (I'm not
entirely sure what that is, chemically, but you can get it from most
pharmacists')? I had a huge needlepoint that got ruined by smoke from an
open fireplace and the powdered magnesia (Mum's idea) got most of the
greasy, black yuck out of it. Sadly, the piece will never be the same
again, but it was very, very dirty and is now reasonably clean. I tried
using talcum powder first and the chemist said that was not helpful.
Something about the talc makes it difficult to brush out again...

I keep a baby's hairbrush (very thick and extremely soft) for dusting my
needlework pieces. Our house is just a street away from the depot of a
large civil engineering company and so there are huge machines going past
at all hours of the night and day. We get dreadful dust from the crud that
blows off their tyres and the diesel that blows out of their exhausts.
Most of my pieces are done on white linda cloth and so the dust shows
quite clearly (when it's there), but a light once-over with the baby brush
is very effective at keeping things clean.

Edna, if your crochet is washable, it'd probably be easy enough to give it
a soak in some orvus or woolwash when it's grubby. You'd need to be very
patient in allowing it to dry naturally on towels and then block it
carefully while it's still dampish, but I think that would do the trick. I
s'pose it all depends what kind of wool you used, really.

What do others think?

--
Trish {|:-} Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Edna wrote:
Trish the wall-hanging is a combination of different types of yarn, antique
buttons, tiny wooden cotton reels with dyed thread, thread crochet, silk
ribbon and more.
I wouldn't want to try and wash it.

I forgot to say in the original message we live on a busy main road and
everything gets really dusty.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

Edna


Ah yes! I know about busy roads and dust! My kids were both entranced by
your work (as was I) and want to know if it's meant to represent a
garden. My son is a knitter but just can't get the gist of crochet - he
envies your ability to translate your ideas into textiles like that and
he's particularly drawn to the organic shapes and clever ways you've
used texture.

We particularly liked the tiny mouse buttons! Years ago, when I had legs
and a waist, I used to wear a pair of white denim bib and brace shorts.
I embroidered a grandfather clock on the bib and used one of those exact
mouse buttons for - well - the mouse who ran up the clock. I've still
got a few of them and have always meant to do a 'Three Blind Mice'
collage...

Anyway, I reckon a nice glass box will keep the work clean *and*
accessible to all comers, so best of luck with it! ;-D

--
Trish {|:-} Newcastle, NSW, Australia

On 6/6/08 8:49 PM, in article
, "alicia
in Hawaii" wrote:

Wow! That is wonderful. I love the crochet. I'm not sure if I'd frame
it. I'm now in a phase of
letting things breathe and be free and open. If it gets dusty etc. it
is part of living. I know
that you will want to preserve it. If you can't let it be out in the
open, I would consider
an archival framing. A deep box, museum quality glass.
I'm not an expert in preserving anything, lol, so, that is a guess.
alicia in Hawaii
www.curiosities808.wordpress.com



I was thinking along the same lines - a good quality shadow box and if you
want, sew mount it to the backing (most decent ones are archival) and put it
on the wall.

Lovely piece by the way.

C

Edna wrote:
Deep frame is a good idea, I will look into it along with a glass top table.

Sorry about your cat.

Edna

Just an FYI for everyone -- when you have some sort of textile
hanging or laying about and easy way to get most of the dust off the
piece is to vacuumn it! For smaller stuff, lay a piece of screen or
netting on top of the textile and then vacuumn through that. This get
the dust off the piece and the screen/netting keeps the surface of the
piece safe especially if it has "bits" attached to it. For larger
pieces, just attach the screen/netting to the end of the vacuumn hose.
CiaoMeow ^;;^

PAX, Tia Mary ^;;^ (RCTQ Queen of Kitties)
Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about
their whiskers!
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