Getting the Hang of It

Close-up, Yellow Monkey Flower Wall Hanging

One of the challenges with creating fused glass wall art is finding a way to hang the finished piece. This is especially tricky when preparing art for hanging in a gallery. To avoid putting holes in the walls, most galleries use a rail and hook system. This method works well for framed paintings but it can be a challenge for glass art. In this blog post, I'll highlight two ways I use for hanging my art that work with a variety of hanging systems, including rail and hook. Both methods use picture hanging wire, but one method incorporates a hanging mechanism into the fired art and the other provides a solution for hanging after the art is fired.

Incorporating Hangers into the Design

During my first firing of the Yellow Monkey Flowers Wall Hanging, I fused into place two stacked clear glass tabs about 1/3 of the way down from the top of the art. The bottom layer of the wall-hanging was cut slightly smaller than the top layer, allowing the bottom tab to slide slightly under the edge of the wall-hanging. The top tab was butted against the very edge of the top layer of glass. 

After slumping, I used a rotary tool with a diamond bit to put a slight indentation on the tabs close to the wall-hanging. Each tab had two indentations - top and bottom. This slight recess helps to ensure that the picture hanging wire will not slip off the tabs. 

A rotary tool is used to create a
slight recessed area at the top
and at the bottom of the tab.
This helps to ensure the wire will
not slip off the edges.

The wire is barely visible from the
front of the art. 

Picture hanging wire is strung across the
back of the art from tab-to-tab.

Hanging After Firing

I originally intended to frame the Golden Hour painting but I couldn't find a frame that I thought complemented the art. I finally decided to hang it unframed. I used a rotary tool to drill holes large enough for screws at each side of the picture. The screws were used to secure two D-rings in the back. I used nuts to hold the screws and D-rings in place, but I only lightly screwed them down to prevent stressing and cracking the glass. The nuts were secured by topping them with a flexible but strong glue to keep the nuts from backing off (Loctite Go To glue). 

Picture-hanging wire strung
between two D-rings on the back

A hole is drilled large
enough to accommodate the
screw. From the front, the screw
blends well with the design. 

The nut is hand-tightened
very lightly and secured with glue.

At the Gallery

The photos below show these two pieces as they hang in my local artists' co-op. I hope this blog post has given you a couple of ideas for ways to hang your glass on the rail and hook systems used by most galleries.

Happy creating! Dana

Yellow Monkey Flowers wall-hanging

Golden Hour wall hanging