Mounting and Framing Small Pieces

I once had a shopper ask me “How much do you charge for one of those place mats?”  Quch! Not what I wanted to hear, but I get it.  To viewers who are not used to seeing art made from fabric the small pieces can look somewhat utilitarian.  To avoid that, I often mount or frame my smallest pieces.

There are plenty of tutorials online about how to do this, but I think my approach is somewhat unique.  That’s because, when using a frame with glass, I always put the art ON FRONT of the glass.  Like this.

I love this presentation.  The frame gives the small art work more “presence” and shows it off as fine art.  But, the textures of the piece are not hidden under glass.

This is very easy to do.  Just use double sided tape to hold the artwork in place.  The following pieces have the same presentation, but it’s hard to see when viewed straight on.

You can do the same thing without glass, just attaching the artwork to mat board that’s framed.

Of course a small art piece can also be mounted on an artist’s canvas.  It can either be left white, painted, or covered with fabric.

When using this technique, I recommend using a “gallery wrapped” canvas.  This is the deeper style with staples on the back.  It makes a very nice presentation.

Once again, you can use double sided tape, but I generally hand sew these onto the canvas in a few places.

Another great thing about using ready-made frames or canvasses is that they help unify a collection of artwork with slightly different sizes.  Like this (digitally mounted) collection.  Even though each piece has little bits extending here and there, they all read as the same size, thanks to the constant size of the canvasses.

There are many more ways to mount small pieces.  What are your favorites?

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Related post on my old blog:
Notes for a Friend, #10-12