Crossstitchforum - A FREE forum for Cross Stitchers

Do you always use glass as well as a frame to display your work?
The glass keeps it clean but sometimes it looks better without...
I am thinking of my Sampler, which has lots of metallic threads. Once finished, it might be better displayed without any glass. What do you think, please?

Glass.
Pets = dust = needs glass.

Regards

Richard

All of mine are under glass. If I don't double mat or double frame them, I use spacers to keep the glass off the stitching (and beads, where applicable).

All of mine are under glass too, it keeps them much cleaner and if one can afford the non reflective glass you wouldn't even know there was glass. I always try to put any stitched pictures out of direct sunlight too.

SE Queensland = paper wasps who love to build their wet mud nests in corners and framed needlework is so enticing.All of my pieces are glassed.

I'm going to sound a different note None of my custom-framed pieces have glass. I like the immediacy of seeing the embroidery without anything intervening - and occasionally to touch it, especially when it has 3D elements in it (like woven picots, or goldwork). None of us smokes, and all the pieces are out of reach of pets. If the occasional cat hair lands on a project, tweezers will get it off (or more usually just fingers). A light flick with a very soft duster does the rest.

It varies. For larger projects I have had my pieces professionally framed and have had glass that preserves the piece (I think that is what it is called)used. These are for special gifts. For pieces that I have framed myself, sometimes I've used the glass that comes with the frame. A few times I haven't. I know that doesn't help a lot, but for me it is a decision that has to be made for each project.

Carole

Like Mabel, some of mine do, and some don't. I no longer have an open coal fire and no pets. But even when we did, it's easier to take the thing apart and clean (after years of the duster flicking treatment). I don't have little moths that somehow always get behind the glass, either (can't remember what they are called, but they are a disaster -- they feast on any natural fibre, and are particularly bad with carpets.)

Thank you all, yours views are helpful. I will frame the sampler myself. I will be able to see how it looks with and without glass and let you know.

Mabel Figworthy wrote:I like the immediacy of seeing the embroidery without anything intervening - and occasionally to touch it, especially when it has 3D elements in it (like woven picots, or goldwork). None of us smokes, and all the pieces are out of reach of pets. If the occasional cat hair lands on a project, tweezers will get it off (or more usually just fingers). A light flick with a very soft duster does the rest.

Mabel, I admire you! Personally I'm more cynical and always use glass, specifically the protective type that prevents (or slows) fading etc. Having said that, I don't do the lovely 3D embroidery that Mabel does so I don't feel that my stitching warrants touching. And anyway, if I'm gonna spend five years of my life stitching something, I want it protected forever. Maybe I'm overprotective.

BizzieLizzie wrote:if I'm gonna spend five years of my life stitching something, I want it protected forever. Maybe I'm overprotective.

That may be the reason for our different views - I have never spent five years stitching a project (unless it spent four and a half years in a drawer...)

I always use glass, ,my apt is on a busy road and the dust is horrendous, therefore glass.

Interesting range of views. However, consider museums.
Oh bad choice really, they have both methods.
And a big restoration budget.

I give up. Having 4 cats and a relaxed attitude to housework, glass is very necessary for us.

Regards,

Richard.

Mabel Figworthy wrote:I like the immediacy of seeing the embroidery without anything intervening - and occasionally to touch it, especially when it has 3D elements in it (like woven picots, or goldwork)

Same here. Also it does look a lot better without the glass. It's like you took the word out of my mouth

Mabel Figworthy wrote:

BizzieLizzie wrote:if I'm gonna spend five years of my life stitching something, I want it protected forever. Maybe I'm overprotective.

That may be the reason for our different views - I have never spent five years stitching a project (unless it spent four and a half years in a drawer...)

Oh boy. My Fire Cat might spend ten years in the drawer half-started at this rate.

I mix it. Most goes behind whatever glass comes with the frame, but if it's specially done, and that includes picking the glass, then I pick a museum glass. Like the wedding sampler I did for my cousin Sara a few years ago. I have a large open-framed piece from my grandmother that has no glass that she stitched around 26 years ago (it has 91 stitched on it, so I'm assuming that's when she finished it). I might have it re-framed at some point. There's a mark on the matting that's very obvious =/

I think it looks best without glass, but as we do have a cat and an open fire type oven, the bare stitching would get too dirty. Glass can be cleaned much more easily.

All mine have glass. It helps to keep them clean.

To glass or not to glass is a very individual decision. In my situation, I wouldn't leave anything hanging on the walls uncovered that can't be washed. I put mine under non-reflective glass (also called museum glass). It is not the same as no-glare glass. No-glare glass (also non-glare or anti-glare) is actually acid-etched to create a light frosting so it mutes the colors and reduces the amount of light that goes through it. Non-reflective glass has a coating on it to reduce reflections and actually increases the light transmission so the colors look brighter. It is absolutely transparent; you can even take a flash picture pointed right at the glass and not have glare. It is also much more expensive than 'regular' glass and not all places that do framing have it.

I always use glass. Stops dust eating into the threads & fabrics.