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Hanging art on walls and keeping sides and tent down.

Posted by Eric Kirkland on April 14, 2010 at 3:20pm

I have an artist friend that I will be helping with his first outdoor shows this season.

 

I read the advice on tents, but we already purchased the EZ Up.  Once we determine how profitable the shows are maybe we can look into more expensive tents.

 

Now my questions.  :-)

 

1.  Since a lot of outside shows don't allow stakes, what is the best method to keep the tents down and in a manner that you don't have to worry about people tripping over cinder blocks, etc?  A way to keep tents downt that is the easiest to transport wtih two people.

 

2.  My friend is a pencil artist and we were thinking of hanging the art in mattes on the side walls.  What would you suggest as a way to anchor the weight of the side walls on the bottom to help keep them firm?

 

Any suggest/tips/advice would be GREATLY appreciated!  :-)

 

Thanks,

Eric

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Replies

  • Diane Wright April 19, 2010 at 4:28pm
    Dave is right. The reason that invested in the happifeet was that the weight was at the bottom but it has a cord that attaches to the top which gives you weight both places. When I used lesser weights at thge bottom, I also attached water jugs to the top and wound the cord around the legs to the bottom and the water jug sat at the bottom of the tent.
  • Susan Corbin April 19, 2010 at 4:24pm
    Thanks David!

    Dave Hinde said:
    I hang my weights from the top of the tent, connected to the end of one of the "scissor" bars. It is also wrapped around the end of the leg. Another solution I've seen is attaching the weights to the D-Rings that are usually on the outside corners of tents - where you'd attach ropes if you used tent stakes. This gets the weights on the outside of the walls.

    I've seen people using bungee cords to hang the weights, but I don't like that idea. It could allow the tent to bounce up and down with the wind. I use small ratchet straps to fasten the weights to the tent.

    Susan Corbin said:
    Dave and Diane, your comments are very helpful. This may sound stupid, but if you use a sandbag, where do you put it - just sit it on the small tent foot, or hang it from somewhere - and if hanging it, from the top, or part way down the leg, or just tie it to the bottom?

    A general question is - for stability is it better to have weight attached (ie hanging from) to the top of the tent or weight holding the feet down from the bottom.

    The answer to this affects my idea for a display solution and weight solution in one. My plan would involve the weight of two 3 x5 panels of 1/4" plywood plus a 10 foot long 2 x 2 piece of wood hanging from the scissor supports on three sides of the tent. Has anybody ever put that much weight on an easy up style tent?
  • Dave Hinde April 19, 2010 at 3:58pm
    I hang my weights from the top of the tent, connected to the end of one of the "scissor" bars. It is also wrapped around the end of the leg. Another solution I've seen is attaching the weights to the D-Rings that are usually on the outside corners of tents - where you'd attach ropes if you used tent stakes. This gets the weights on the outside of the walls.

    I've seen people using bungee cords to hang the weights, but I don't like that idea. It could allow the tent to bounce up and down with the wind. I use small ratchet straps to fasten the weights to the tent.

    Susan Corbin said:
    Dave and Diane, your comments are very helpful. This may sound stupid, but if you use a sandbag, where do you put it - just sit it on the small tent foot, or hang it from somewhere - and if hanging it, from the top, or part way down the leg, or just tie it to the bottom?

    A general question is - for stability is it better to have weight attached (ie hanging from) to the top of the tent or weight holding the feet down from the bottom.

    The answer to this affects my idea for a display solution and weight solution in one. My plan would involve the weight of two 3 x5 panels of 1/4" plywood plus a 10 foot long 2 x 2 piece of wood hanging from the scissor supports on three sides of the tent. Has anybody ever put that much weight on an easy up style tent?
  • Susan Corbin April 19, 2010 at 3:35pm
    Dave and Diane, your comments are very helpful. This may sound stupid, but if you use a sandbag, where do you put it - just sit it on the small tent foot, or hang it from somewhere - and if hanging it, from the top, or part way down the leg, or just tie it to the bottom?

    A general question is - for stability is it better to have weight attached (ie hanging from) to the top of the tent or weight holding the feet down from the bottom.

    The answer to this affects my idea for a display solution and weight solution in one. My plan would involve the weight of two 3 x5 panels of 1/4" plywood plus a 10 foot long 2 x 2 piece of wood hanging from the scissor supports on three sides of the tent. Has anybody ever put that much weight on an easy up style tent?
  • Diane Wright April 19, 2010 at 2:44pm
    I have an top of the line EZ up and it did well last season. You will need weights - about 30-40 pounds per leg. You can make the PVC weights with cement, use cinder blocks or hand weights, or purchase weights especially for tents. Last season I got some from Dicks Sporting Goods that were made for tents. Thjey are each 10 lbs so you would have to stack. This year I bought Happifeet but I haven't tried them yet. My first outside show is May 8. As far as hanging things, you can't and don't want to hang from the side walls that come with the EZ up. You could try gridwalls or flourish has mesh sides with sta bars for EZ ups. That will be my next purchase. I sell jewelry and don't technically hang things but I have seen them and they make the tent look very neat and professional. You can hang your 2D art from them easily. I would use them to have photos of my jewelry or process photos. Good luck to you.
  • Dave Hinde April 19, 2010 at 2:41pm
    The first weights I used were buckets of cat litter. 40 pounds per corner worked well. I've since bought bags from Flourish.Com that hold about 50 pounds of sand each, but I suggest using pea gravel instead of sand if you go that route. I also recently helped a friend make weights from PVC pipe. 2.5 ft of 4" inch pipe, filled with cement mix and water. Put a long 8" eye bolt in the cap, with a large washer and two nuts at the far end for the cement to hold on to. Total cost about $15 a weight - with the biggest expense being the end caps.

    For walls inside, you really need something other than the tents walls. If you just have unframed work, I suggest tables inside, or display racks with the pictures in them. I wouldn't trust hanging are work on the tent walls. Even the slightest breeze causes them to ripple. On the cheaper EZ-Ups and Caravan tents, the corner zippers are a weak spot. Trying to keep the sidewalls tight, may put too much pressure on the zippers. Personally, I like steel grid-wall. Hinge two panels together and set them up like corners, so you don't need legs for them. One other advantage of grid-wall is that it's heavy, and if you tie it to the tent, it helps anchor it.

    One other weight suggestion is 5 gallon paint buckets. You can fill them with water, sand, gravel or anything heavy. If you're near a sand supply, like the beach, you can carry them empty and fill them on site. Water can usually be found at the site, too.
  • Susan Corbin April 19, 2010 at 2:33pm
    Just another idea. If the sides of your tent have to be down , a good way to weight them is to hem them with a weight of some sort in them. You used to be able to get curtain weights which were flexible, but I don't know if they would be heavy enough. It would be interesting to know if anyone has tried this and if it worked.

    By the way, I have done lots of indoor shows but plan to do more outdoor ones from now on. I have done enough outdoor ones to know about the problems, but am still working on smoothing out the details.
  • Susan Corbin April 19, 2010 at 2:29pm
    I also just bought and EZ up type of tent and about 80 percent of the people at the Sunday street market yesterday also had them. My neighbours used half cinder blocks with the leg inside the block and also a clamp holding the leg to one side of the block. I think the most convenient weights that I saw were plastic gallon water jugs. You can hang them with rope from the top of each corner or thread the string through the position holes on each leg. At the end of the show you can empty them so you're not carrying the extra weight. Obviously they are filled with tap water, not spring water!

    What I would emphasize is don't go without any weights thinking it might be okay. There was hardly any wind Sunday and without weights it still felt like the whole tent could take to flight very easily.

    I have had an idea which would add weight and also provide an upper half wall for hanging art, but it is complicated and I have to try it out first. I will post if and when it works.

    Like you Eric, I am very interested to hear ways of dealing with the adding weight problem and the displaying art on walls thing.
  • Larry Berman April 14, 2010 at 4:30pm
    Cinder blocks would work for weights. They need to be at least the 8x8x16 blocks, either one or two in each corner.

    You need walls inside the canopy to hang the artwork on. And all hanging work should really be framed so it looks good the potential customer.

    Larry Berman
    Digital Jury Services
    http://BermanGraphics.com
    412-401-8100
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