so far so good: using handmade plate hangers

You're going to see some primer starting to cover the yellow milk paint on my kitchen wall in these photos, but this post isn't about paint (that'll have to wait); it's about hanging things on the wall (fish, in this case) using handmade wire plate hangers.

I have a ceramic fish on my wall that we picked up at Jeff Chang Pottery on a trip to Oahu when we were twenty-one. It's a pretty blue, tropical thing I don't know the name of, and it hangs from a hook applied to the back by the artist.

The plan for awhile has been to add some additional fish as time went by. At my niece and nephew's birthday party in 2008, I painted the little blue fish spoon rest at a "paint your own pottery" studio, intending to hang him on the wall with his Hawaiian friend. But I couldn't track down a plate hanger small enough, so I put him to use as an actual spoon rest instead.

Finally, the large fish dish was a summer piece from Target . . . thankfully discounted after weeks of stalking it, waiting for the price to drop. It came home with us, then sat on the counter for a week while I researched how to make my own plate hangers, since nothing short of a miracle was going to turn up anything heavy-duty enough to securely hold this heavy dish on the wall.

So there you have it; two common plate hanging problems: the dish is too big, and the dish is too small. The solution is a $3 spool of wire, a pair of needle-nose pliers/wire cutters, and some help from good ol' Martha Stewart.

Martha's instructions recommend 18 gauge annealed iron wire, which I'm totally sure is an actual thing, but I couldn't find it in three different local places, or Amazon. So I looked for a good alternative, something a similar gauge (thickness) that bends easily enough with pliers and fingers, but stiff enough to keep its shape when holding a heavy plate.

I tried a couple of different things, but ended up settling on this one: plastic coated 18 gauge steel wire.

I ended up choosing the plastic-coated steel to solve another common plate hanging problem: chipping plates. The plastic coating on the wire is transparent and subtle (on my blue fish, anyway) and protects the ceramic from the hard edges of the wire.

Cut two pieces that are longer than your plate (I used three for the big fish).

Twist a loop in the middle of one piece, and make a "v" shape in the middle of the other.

Connect on the back of your plate, then wrap the wires tightly (but not too tightly) around your plate.

On the front, use the pliers to twist little loops at the ends of the wire. Make sure your plate is held securely before hanging. If any part is loose, your plate could slip and break!

Use the hoop on the back to hang your dish on a picture hanger that's rated to hold the right weight . . . or a little more. I used a 3-pound hanger for the small dish, but a 50-pound hanger nailed into a wall stud for the big dish. Better to go for a little overkill, I think.

A simple little project, cheaper than buying readymade hangers, and more versatile, too.

What have you been saving to hang on the wall? What's your obstacle?

Thanks for reading!


p.s. you can make these photos larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that.

new in my etsy vintage shop

I found a couple of really nifty treasures over the past couple of weeks. Namely, some really lovely mid-century dishware sort of fell into my lap while I was out thrifting for a pair of Converse for my husband. I had my Commando (phone) along to help with a bit of on-the-spot research, and so I came home with the lovelies below . . .

Broadhurst Ironstone by Kathie Winkle. Five pieces in this pattern, Viscount, are currently listed in my Etsy Vintage Shop, Night Garden Vintage. Kathie was a designer at Broadhurst for a few decades, and was one of the first designers to have her signature on the back of pieces she'd designed. Now sought-after by collectors, folks are gathering large collections of her machine-stamped, hand-painted pieces to mix and match.








Also found, one small saucer in pattern 1506.








I have scoured the web to find more information about pattern 1506, but haven't found any other images of this pattern. The closest I've seen is Kathie Winkle's pattern "Safari". I've linked here to someone else's Flickr page.

As you can see from Louise's Flickr photo, the pattern is identical, but the color is different. Possibly "Safari" was available in more than one color-way? Possibly the plate is an early prototype? Possibly this colorway was simply known as "1506"? I don't know.

Next up, this serving plate by Stetson China Company for Mar-crest's Nest Stone line. The pattern name, according to website Modish.net, is Diamond Carousel, by designer Alfred Dube. The pattern is a ring of elongated diamonds and starbursts around the rim of the off-white dish, very retro-modern.









My assumption is that this is a serving piece; the only other plate in this pattern currently for sale on-line (as far as I've found) is listed as a dinner plate on eBay, with a 10-inch diameter. This is one and three-quarters inches larger.

Visit my Etsy shop to check out more photos and details! I have some pieces in Franciscan's Pomegranate pattern I'll be listing in the near future, so if you like that pattern, stay tuned!


(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)


Pin It

wow. just, wow.

You like this? This is a cute little vintage "treat pedestal" available on BHLDN by maker E. Isabella Designs. It is an astounding $78.

This is an article from ReadyMade Magazine's MacGyver Challenge a year ago, telling you how to make the exact same thing. For $78, you could make more than a dozen, and have them on every table at your wedding. Things like this are why some people spend $20,000 on a wedding instead of on a downpayment for a house.

If you really need to buy something like this, because you don't like to use glue or have an aversion to DIY, you can buy a similar item on Etsy for between $12 and $20.