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Welcome back to breakthrough photography, in this episode I'm going to show you, step
by step, how to create your own custom, hanging hardware for your photography,
to hang it in a really beautiful, modern and compelling way.
It's really, really inexpensive and I found that it works great, not only in galleries
but also just for fun, hanging around the house or even giving away
as gifts. In fact, it's so incredibly cheap that your mark-up could
be huge or you could actually sell it for a lot less and go for volume if you're interested
in selling your work in a gallery setting. So, whether you're a
photographer looking to make money in a gallery setting, or whether
you're just wanting to have fun or just hang stuff in your own house, this episode is for
you. Now, before we get started, make sure to click subscribe, right
here, before we go any further, to stay up to date with all of our
upcoming YouTube videos and all of the content that we produce on YouTube. Now, thanks so
much for subscribing, in addition, check out the article by clicking
this button; and our article that we produced for this video, this
article was written and includes a checklist and the checklist includes all the things
you may need, and even links to the Amazon pages on where you can
buy this stuff and just have it shipped to your home and get started
right away.
Okay, so our equipment checklist here is pretty darn small; we don't have too much stuff we
need, and the stuff we do need is really, really cheap. So, what
you need to start out with is to get a hacksaw that is good for cutting
wood, nothing complicated here, just something with a thin enough blade not to leave the
edges of the wood all messed-up. So, a simple hacksaw like this
costs between like 5 or 10 bucks.
And the second thing you're going to need is some galvanized steel wire, and this stuff
is, again, really cheap; you can buy this stuff online, or buy it in
a store. This stuff usually runs, like, 3 or 4 bucks for a whole
bunch and this stuff lasts for, literally, maybe 150 pictures. It's a lot of wire, and
you're not gonna use a lot.
The next thing you're gonna need is some sandpaper; and we use this to finish off the wood, to
make bother edges here nice and soft.
Last thing you're gonna need are some little, tiny nails; the ones I like to use are called
"wire brads"; so, wire brads are really, really tiny and they're
perfect for what we're doing here.
And the last thing you need is just some kind of coin or something, the size of a US quarter
is fine, just for pushing these nails into the wood; we're not
going to be using a hammer or anything like that for any of this.
So let's get started: what we're going take a look at first is how to create a 16x24 gator
board-mounted photograph, and how to actually create hangers
for the back of those. So, here's an example of a 16x24 archival
Lester print on 3/16th gator board, which is a pretty common material for mounting photographs
to when doing traditional printing. So, it would be behind
the print, behind the frame; but it's also a really good, non-toxic,
acid free backing for just hanging by itself - now this is not a serious way to hang, of
course, but, it's a really fun way to hang it, you know, open
editions, low cost, that's what we're going for here. Nothing crazy,
nothing serious, just making it yourself, sorta DIY. So, this is a really good material,
I'd highly recommend gator board over foam core, which is white
and it actually flexes and it actually warps, whereas, gator board is
pretty darn resistant to warping, especially with this method that we're about to go over.
So, to get started with gator board, simply put it down on the table that's on top of
your towel and we're ready to get started. So, the idea is the same here
as with the 8x8's, the only difference is, of course, the length of
the wood is going to be slightly different. Now, this is totally up to you, there's no
set length on it, but I like to do it at a length that is somewhere
is this range, and the only thing to know here is you want to put it
down a little bit further than you might think. The only reason is because the wire on this
one does flex a little bit over time and it does become a
little bit more loose, but it's still perfectly fine. So, again, I like
to put it right about here; you know this is probably like 3 and a half inches or so
from the top. And then you also need to have one down below; so if this
was the top, down below here, we're also going to need one. And the
reason why we're going to need one is because when you put it on a wall without this, it
actually just sort of sinks into the wall, which can be a good look
if you're hanging it higher, otherwise if you're hanging it at
regular eye level, I'd recommend putting the second one down here, at equal length as the
one up top.
Cool, so I'm just going to go ahead and get started here with adding the nails to the
wood.
So, here's the print, again, if you want to wear white gloves, that's fine. Again, these
are open edition, these are luster prints, not glossy or metallic,
so I'm not too worried about those kinds of details here. This is
actually, believe it or not, a fairly resistant surface or at least it's more resistant than
you might think. OK, so if this is the top of the image, I'm going
to go ahead and flip it over and then, because this is the top, I'm
going to start hanging it right about here; and again, there's no exact science here but
I like to go for a good 3 and a half, 3 to 3 and a half inches here
at the top. So, I'm just gonna as I, so this is where it should be, I'm
just going to, carefully and push with some pressure on it, to turn it over like this,
and same as last time, just gonna to do two lines here, very small lines,
and I'm just gonna put some dots here as I go back. Alright, and so
now, again, very carefully, I'm just going to flip it back, again, applying pressure
as I'm doing this; and very carefully, make sure that it's in place.
OK, so the next thing we're going to take a look at is an 8x8 styrene print; now styrene
is a material that resembles plastic, it has the aesthetics and
the appearance of plastic; one thing to note here, is that these
little guys, you know, it's best to have these guys professionally printed and mounted, so
I'm going to leave a link in the article that accompanies this
video on where I like to do mine, and how much it costs and all that
stuff so you can get started doing it yourself if you don't already have somebody who mounts
to styrene. But these things are incredibly cheap; check out
the article for the prices and all that, because they always change.
But, yeah, let's go ahead and take a look at what is involved in getting hang-ready
hardware on these little guys.
OK, so the checklist of equipment is going to be just the same as on the 16x24 and the
24x36 size prints on gator board, with the exception of the glue. Now,
wood glue works perfect for gator board, it's a really good glue for
that, so I'd highly recommend using this stuff, not only is it much much cheaper, but it's
also just easier to work with because it comes out a lot faster.
Now this is not going to work, though, for the styrene material and
the reason why is the styrene back doesn't actually have any porous surface; it's more
like a plastic surface, and because of that, the wood glue doesn't work
on this plastic material. However, this other kind of gorilla glue,
does, and this is, you know, just the standard sort of stuff; so, you got the wood glue and
then you have the regular stuff. I'll put this on the equipment
checklist in the article. So, just one thing to not there,
definitely make sure you get this stuff for the 8x8's, and get this stuff for the 16x24's
and the 24x36.
OK, so once you have the right glue, and you have your wood cut and the wire brads and
the wire all set up, I like to go a good inch, sometimes an inch and a
half from the top here. And I like to keep a good inch on either side;
and as a rule, I tend to try to make them even. In other words, even on side, the top,
and even on the other side. So, that looks about right. So, I'm
just going to really slowly turn that over like this, and then put
this on, and I like to just do a circle on this one; just like that. And then one thing
to note about this glue is that it does have, it does like to shift
a lot, so you gotta make sure it's on a really flat surface; that's
super critical for this one, because this does not pop off if you don't get it aligned
just right; or if you do and it starts to shift because the surface
is not level, you're just kinda screwed. So, you gotta make sure it's,
not only on there really tight like this, even on all sides, but that the surface that
you're working on is level; that way it won't shift with the gravity over
the course of a couple hours, which is the dry time on this stuff.
So, we're going to go ahead and let that dry.
So, hanging photographs like the 8x8 and the 16x24 work great with this method; and it
even works great all the way up to 24x36, which is what you're seeing
here. And I really love 24x36, in fact, this is my favorite size for
printing. And again, going for a luster or matte print surface, mounted to gator board
is a really good way to go here. And instead of having a 3/16th's gator
board like before, I like to go a good half inch, which is nice and
thick. And a good length to go on the wood, that I would recommend is sixteen inches;
and again, we're going to be going for two of these, that way when it's
on the wall, it floats off the wall a good distance here, and it
floats off evenly, by having this lower one. So, again, just like last time, you're going
to make sure it's a little bit further down than you think it
should go only because the wire does hang here and the heavier the gator
board the more flex it gives over a time. So, I'm just gonna put that right about here,
which is a good 4 to 4 and a half inches down. And then the one below,
also a good distance, but maybe about three from the bottom. So,
this is the top here, this is the bottom. And just like so.
That's it in a nutshell; I hope that you found this video really, really useful and make
sure to click subscribe, right here, if you haven't done so already
to stay up to date with all of our upcoming YouTube videos; we've gotta
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right here on the screen; and then definitely make sure to check out
the check list, if you haven't already, print it out, have it by your
side when you're going through this process to make you've got the right stuff, all the
right equipment, all the right steps in the right order, and all that
kind of stuff. So, definitely check out the article that
accompanies this video, and make sure to leave us a comment. If you have any comments, leave
them in the comment box below, and if you have any questions also
leave them in the comment box below; we read every single one of
them and we'd really appreciate it. So, thank you so much for watching and have a great
day.