tea towel art

Up until, well, now,  I’ve always lived in itty bitty spaces with minimal wall space.  As an art collector, having limited wall space meant small pieces to hang and lots of pottery.  But now  I have some big, spanning spaces of wall to fill and nothing substantial enough to fill them with.  That and I have a total fear of commitment to hanging anything, but that’s a different story.

When I was back in the States, I knew we were moving into this apartment and so I carefully stocked up on things like 3M hooks and beautiful wooden cake stands.  You know? The essentials!  Anyway, during one of our many shopping trips, my mom and I stopped by Crate & Barrel, a place of infinite weakness and delight for me.  Well, my mom was drooling over these great canning jars I knew I would never be able to get back to Cyprus when I found this tea towel.  It looked like a cool poster from a farmer’s market but was in fact a screen printed image on some hearty linen.

It was love.  It was $5.95.  It was mine.  Lightweight, foldable, and inexpensive, it was easily transported halfway around the world and into my new home.

I picked up a 15 euro frame at Ikea and used the included mat as an anchor for the towel.  I laid the towel on the ground (didn’t have a table available..) and placed the mat on top to select what part of the towel I wanted visible.  I then used masking tape to fold up the edges of the towel and to secure it to the back of the mat.  I then inserted it back into the frame, tried my hand at hanging a large piece, and before I knew it, I had some really great art of my wall.

Where have you found artwork?  The dollar store?  Wrapping paper?  You never know what will catch your eye and fill the giant wall waitin’ for some lovin’.