A Collaborative Effort

Whenever Mary Ava walks through our door I know the art she brings in allows us to travel somewhere new. On her most recent visit into the gallery Mary Ava brought us gorgeous, handmade textile art from Myanmar. “I’m drawn to fiber arts and particularly like to support women’s endeavors.” Mary Ava shared a photo of the women stitching on the porch of the shop in Mandalay, Myanmar where she purchased her sequined piece.

When designing for fiber art we recommend using textured fabric mats. They provide a richness of color that effortlessly enhances textile artwork. For Mary Ava’s piece we opted for a gorgeous metallic-shimmer fiber mat that provided a lightness and allowed the black fabric to pop. The frame is a deep brown with an antiqued golden patina that corresponds with the golden trim and matte sequins in the artwork.

Embroidery, hand-sewn appliques, sequins and bead-work are clearly on display as Museum Glass was a “no question” choice for this piece. Mary Ava even found antique sequins online to replace those which had fallen off during transport.

Behind the scenes we carefully steamed and blocked the material. Then Mary turned the edges and hand stitched the fiber art to a rag mat. Frame-space lifts the glass safely away from the art and allows the art to breathe. The last detail was to double check all the sequins were facing the correct way!

“You did a fabulous job framing my piece, Mary! As always, I appreciated the collaborative effort Malibu staff made in selecting the perfect frame, mat, and mounting technique.”

Thank you, Mary Ava! – –  I wonder, where to next?