Many of you had questions about these small boards and how I prep them and hang them
So here we go. Welcome back, friends
So thank you for stopping by today. We're just going to have a short video where we talk about these deep cradle boards
I buy the birch ones. They have no... just so finish on them. So we need to start somewhere and that's where we're going to start
So we might have seen me create this a couple of weeks ago and this is one of the
one of the collages that's going in my exhibition next month and so I still have to sign it
I still have to prepare it for for hanging and I just did get a question
recently in the comments about how I prepare the boards for collage and also
you know how do they hang against the wall how well do they hang against the
wall so I wanted to show you exactly what I do and what I found was the best
way because this is so flush back here that I found that when I put a D
ring in a wire the the board kind of like if this was the wall it kind of
hung away from the wall slightly and I really didn't like that
So what I, the solution that I came up with was one of these little sawtooth hangers that
you hammer into the back, right in the center, but then that leaves it like a tiny fraction
away from the wall. So then in the bottom corners, I put these little bumpers and then it hangs perfectly
like about maybe less than an eighth of an inch away from the wall
depending on how far in you hammer this in. So another thing, so let's start from the beginning, though
These are birch wood deep cradle panels. I think I got this one on Amazon
I start with a black jesso. That's my preference. but you could also do a white jesso any color anything you want You just need to seal this wood And usually I do two coats and I do the sides as well Now you can see on this one I keeping the sides black
And all of the ones that are from this little tiny series of three, they all have black sides
But I haven't varnished the sides yet. So they aren't as glossy as the front
I will varnish the sides, and then I will attach my little sawtooth and my little bumpers
and we'll be ready to go. But another thing I have to do is I have to sign it
So I'm going to sign it in this corner right here with a gold pen
This is a oil-based, permanent, opaque, fine point gold pen. And I use this other one just to sort of have something to rest on
And let me make sure my pen is... I want to get the right..
There we go. All right. So it's kind of subtle, which is what I want
my signature to scream out, but it's blending a little bit and looks nice
So now I have to let that dry. I will probably throw a little bit of that satin varnish on
top of that as well. All right, so we don't need this one anymore. This is the satin varnish
I'm going to put it in a little cup. Okay, so I'm just going to put a little bit of this in this cup
You could see how fluid it is. And I'm just going to..
And this will kind of match the finish on the front. And I might need two coats
The jasso looks like it's really soaking it up. So I also want to mention that on some of the panels that are thinner than this
Like this is a deep cradle. I have some other panels that are only maybe, I think they're three quarters of an inch
Those panels are going to get framed. And I'm using a floater frame for those
So in the end, I think it'll look the same thickness as these
And I'm going to do exactly the same sawtooth and bumpers on that
And we're going to just let the sides dry and then we'll see if we need a third coat
because the jesso is just really soaking up this satin varnish. Okay, it looks fine to me, so I'm going to leave it
Looks good all around. So now this is the top. So here is where I'm going to put my little sawtooth hanger
and I'm going to get a pencil. and my ruler so I'm gonna make sure that I'm really this board is not exactly eight
inches as it says it as it was supposed to be okay so I'm marking the four inch mark
and I've got my I have this cute little hammer love this little thing so that little dot
there and this kind of is the middle one that's where we want that
that line to be lined up. So let me see if I can get this where you can actually see and where I can also see so that I can hammer this Right there and I kind of press in a little bit
I can make this wood is soft enough that I can make a little bit of an indent
So you could see it's crooked. I got to pull it out
It's hard to do when you're trying to do this on camera
So I'm just going to slide that one down a little bit, hammer it again
Okay, that's better. So you could see it does have this a slightly offset, and hopefully it's about the same as the same trans
this so this side has to go in a little bit more okay and if we look again it's kind of
like level so now what I do is in these corners these are sticky back and I just
stick them in the corner. So now when I hang this on the wall, it will be evenly spaced
In other words, the space from the wall to where the panel starts will just be like
you know, maybe a little less than an eighth of an inch, and it will be even from top to bottom
And it's these little details that really make a difference when you're selling art
You want your collector to take it home and just hang it
and not have to worry about these little details. And you want them to be happy with the way it looks when it's hanging on the wall
If it's like hanging forward from the top, it's not going to be a good look
Thanks for watching today. And don't forget to create, inspire, and share
And give wood panels a try. I love them