Is there anby way to PROTECT MY PIECES?

[Havi]

Hi everybody,
In continuation with my piece that wants / or does not want 'water jetting'.....

I am having an exhibition where I shall install 11 pieces of mine on stands. It will relate to more cultural events, during our forthcoming high holidays, in the city where I live. With me there will be a local painter who will exhibit her [mostly black] watercolors.

The exhibition will take place in a branch of a BANK, in our city. It is kind of juried exhibition. The municipal curator is very excited and exciting about it.

There is no protection and no insurance of the pieces. I shall have to choose the places and positions where the pieces will be least vulnerable.

I am worried mainly of 2 things,
1. That someone might put a piece of mine in his pocket and walk away with it... without anybody noticing it
2. That someone might move not too carefully and hit a piece, break the piece, and break my heart with it. It will really break my heart.
Being that the walls of the bank are made of glass, I am planning to put my pieces next to the walls, thus having them out of the way, sort of. Also I am thinking of choosing my work according to these criteria - staff that will not be easily stolen, and\or staff that will not be easily broken.
Still i am worried.

Have you got any tips? Advise?
How to protect? How to choose what I am going to present ? Basically I would like to be able to choose the latest / best staff I made... not the safest staff.. [I have to add that there will be a banner running with photos - as many as I give - of my work - this is of course very safe ], also there will be big photos [40" by 40"] of 4 pieces on the street itself, a LOT of free advertising...but what about the pieces????

Many thanks,

Havi

[haleybach]

Museum wax or putty. There is a brand called quake hold.
If you use this product avoid the gel, it is harder to work with.

This only works if you do not allow people to pick things up, and I find people that pick things up tend to be the ones that buy things. But museum wax or putty is a wax that cleans off fairly easily and has good holding power. You just need a tiny bit of it. I used it all the time for all sorts of things when I lived in California. It will help keep things in place if some one bumps into your display.

[Morganica]

I rely on museum gel and putty interchangeably, although less and less in the house because I have two rather inventive cats who've figured out how it works (especially for small sparkly pieces that would be fun to bat around). My collection of figured glass goblets has been, er, significantly edited as a result.

One caution: These products can actually hold the work TOO well. You remove adhered pieces by twisting them a bit to break the seal and THEN lifting. If people don't know that and try to simply lift up, they might break off fragile bits of glass. I've also lost pieces to cleaning ladies who accidentally struck the piece with a vacuum handle or duster. The unadhered pieces have a chance of bouncing/sliding away from the blow and dissipating the force without breaking. The adhered pieces generally take the full force of the blow and shatter, leaving sad little bits still stuck to the surface.

And, as Haley says, if the goal is to sell the piece, you at least want to make sure that the salespeople are available to remove the work and hand to a potential collector (and that they know the trick).

You need a certain amount of flat surface area to make the stuff effective, so (for example) a steel stand that's essentially an inverted box with only edges touching the table doesn't work with gel. I like to take three small dabs of the gel, roll them into balls and place them in a triangular pattern on the bottom of the piece. Then I press it onto the surface of the table/pedestal and hold for a few moments to settle it in. The gel will slowly spread out to a flat, even layer under the glass--until then it'll be a bit rocky. The putty doesn't take quite as long to adhere (in my experience).

Theft prevention is a different story. A determined thief with a little quiet time isn't going to be stopped by museum putty, especially if the piece is on a stand and the STAND is the part that's gelled down. You might think about having some acrylic display cases built, just cubes that encompass the work with some breathing space. Gel down the case, with the work inside, and you'll protect the work both from accidental breakage and make theft harder.

Of course, that's a lot more expensive.

[Brad Walker]

I am having an exhibition where I shall install 11 pieces of mine on stands.

Build a glass (or acrylic is better) box on top of the stands and secure it to the stand. That way people can see the piece but can't touch and can't remove without also removing or disassembling the stand.

[Stephen Richard]

Brad beat me to it. They are simple to construct and glue together.

[Havi]

Well, guys and ladies!
I am honestly more than grateful to you - again you have surprised me, and taught me something I did not know.!

Brad, if you have any of the gel and or the putty - please send me, both of them, and charge me as always. Whatever I decide - i want this staff with me here, at home. [I apologise, friends for doing business here on the board, but it saves me a lot of time]

The idea of plexi-boxes went thru my mind too, but as said above it will cost a lot of money, I shall have to check about it. Among other thing, I' ll have to decide whether to 'spend' money on water-jetting my piece and / or making plexi boxes, perhapd only 3 or 4 or 5, not 11.
I'll have to think about it,
but you certainly eased my mind.
And being that it is already 11 pm here - you made me go to bed with a lighter heart and sleep better.

For 10 years I have been on this board, NEVER disapointed,

Thank you so much, for that,
and much more

Havi