I've been painting my vertical slices for about 5 years. They are done on prepared gessobord, made my ampersandart.com out of Austin, TX. And, I have a ton of fun painting the verticals. But, every once in a while, I have some great ideas that get stuck in my head for horizontals. And they (the ideas) won't leave if I don't get them out through my paintings/drawings. So, I've done a few but have been a bit unhappy about how they hang on the wall. I can solve the issue easily in the booth--thank you carpeted walls--with a bit of velcro on the back. However, I don't think many of my customers have carpeted walls and so that doesn't really help. I've tried the sawtooth hangers coupled with some felt bumpons on the bottom corners and that helps, but isn't perfect.
So, a customer of mine asked if I had ideas for hanging the piece more flush to the wall. I responded that some of my other artist friends just hung it straight on the nail. But for him, with his 3 adorable children and at least 2 dogs that I know of, I don't necessarily recommend this approach. "Seems risky" I think were his words. But, I've come up with a very simple addition to this hanging method that provides some security. So, from now on, I'll make these little notches on all my small horizontal pieces.
Basically, all I did was to use my drill and drill bit to made a small notch on the inside top of the piece, at the center point, about 1 centimeter from the outside edge. It was pretty shallow and just wide enough to fit partially on the drywall screw I angled into the wall. Then, when I hang the piece I merely feel for the notch with the screw. Gravity then holds it in place without worry that a slamming door will slide the piece off its hanger...
