Unique Mounting – Seaweed Trees
Figuring out how to hang this carving was half the fun of doing the project. But, I didn’t count on the plywood being this fragile. So, I had the joy of coming up with a modified solution, with a little help from my favorite framer.
This post is part of the Follow My Carving Series
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Off the Wall
Both trees casting shadows would be so neat looking. But that also meant that the mount would need to be elongated somehow too.
I paid a visit to my favorite framer, Connie Weaver, who owns S&S Framing here in Nashville.
Dowel rods seemed to be a good choice for spacers. Connie suggested using some of my scrap wood to create a small block, glue that to the frame, and then add a saw tooth hanger to that.
Doing it that way would ensure that I wouldn’t have to hammer or screw into the fragile wood.
She also assured me that glue would definitely bond well and that the pieces would not come apart. I read up on what type of glue held well and chose to go with Gorilla Glue.
The Perfect Hanger
Off to the hardware store I went, in search of the perfect size and depth for the mount.
What a delight to find a push pin type mount (the little Christmas trees on the ends). No drilling. No screws. And they were the perfect depth.
To absolutely, 100% ensure that they never backed out of the wood, I also got some Krazy Glue.
This carving is not going to have a chance to fall off the wall!!
If it did, it would be toast.
Measure Twice, Cut Once
Two layers of scrap wood pieces stacked together turned out to be the maximum height I’d want to cut the dowel rod spacers.
But, one layer of wood plus the hanger didn’t quite equal the same depth. it was only 1/4” short. So, I’ll be modifying the length of the dowel pieces to suite.
How to Oil
Now I have a slightly new wrinkle in my perfectly laid plans. How am I going to oil each piece without getting it on the spots where I need to glue?
I believe I’ll go ahead and glue up the hanger and the dowels on the back piece, including those on the front side of it.
I’ll do my best not to get any oil on the tip ends.
Perhaps I’ll use the temp adhesive to place dowel pieces on the backside of the front carving, just to keep oil off the places I’ll need to glue. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll have to sand those areas, which I’d really rather not do if at all possible.
I’ll let you know how it all turns out.
And I can hardly wait to hang this on the wall and get a really good picture of it for you!! It looks a LOT better than the shots I’ve taken so far.