I have tanned and stretched a beautiful fox-red coyote for a rug. The guy has decided he wants it to hang on his wall. I have the head form installed but need some input on what to put between the skin and the felt to keep it flat on the wall. I took a 1/4" sheet of floor board like what is installed under linoleum and cut it to the shape of the skin less 1/2" all the way around the border. This seems like it's going to be too thick. If this is used, should I glue the hide to the board? Any ideas of what others have used for this application? I've considered coroplast sheeting but I'm worried that it might not be stiff enough. I went thru the archives but really didn't find anything other than plywood mentioned. Thanks.
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on the underside and hang it on nails - find out how he wanats to hang it and place the rings accodingly
mrdux:
A standard in rugging is to use either foam pad or heavy batting. On small mammal rugs I use a 6-10 oz fiber fill batting the same used during quilt making. you can pick it up at just about any fabric store. Cut it to the same dimension as your hide. then sew your felt bourder on the dog. I use two felt strips pinked and ruffeled sewn directly to the skin about 1 3/4 to 2 inch width. After the felt is on position the batting and then sew on your backing material. This can be just about any light weight cloth I use muslin. Install the hardware and do the finish work. My shop does commercial rugging. contact me if you need any further assistance.
Thanks and good luck
Jeff
If your skin has been rehydrated and stretched flat it will hold its shape after you do the following steps. Stay away from foam for your interlining as it breaks down and starts deteriorating after a short period of time,leaving a crumbly mess between the lining. Quilters batting works best. After your border, padding and backing are attached, sew your hangers on the back side through the leather, if you put them on the felt only, the weight of the rug will just rip it from the wall.
Kindest regards,
Mary
to all who replied. I got the customer back in the studio yesterday and we discussed several options on hanging the rug. We ended up settling on staying away from the wood to hold it's shape and will be going with the batting like I have done before.