Make room for things made slowly, and then hang them somewhere that will not undo the work. A large macramé piece, a woven panel or a cotton wall hanging asks two things of a wall: that it can hold the weight, and that it is dry. The weight question gets all the attention. The dry one does the damage.
Why fibre is unforgiving about walls
Cotton and jute are hygroscopic: they take up moisture from the air and hold it, which is part of why they feel warm in a room and drape as they do.
Hung flat on a wall damper than the rest of the room, a piece becomes a wick. The cord against the plaster stays slightly wet, the room side keeps the front dry, and moisture concentrates along the back where nothing dries and nothing is seen. Natural fibre with a steady moisture supply and no air movement is ideal for mildew, and mildewed cotton cord is stained permanently. No wash recovers it, because the mark is growth inside the fibre rather than dirt on it.
Check the wall first, properly
Press the back of your hand flat against the plaster, low down and high up. A patch markedly cooler than the surrounding wall is holding moisture.
Look along the skirting for flaking paint, a powdery bloom on the plaster, or paper lifting at a seam. Sniff close to the wall in a room that has been shut all day.
If any of that is present, sort the wall before anything is hung. Where plaster is blown, or growth returns after cleaning, mould treatment specialists in Pittsburgh or a comparable firm nearer you will find the moisture source and treat the wall itself. Hanging a handmade piece over it hides the evidence and sacrifices the piece.
Hanging it so air can move
Even on a sound wall, give the back of a piece room to breathe.
Mount the dowel or branch on brackets that stand it fifteen or twenty millimetres off the plaster rather than flush. The gap is invisible from the front and it is the difference between a piece that stays sweet and one that smells of the wall by the second winter.
Keep hangings off external walls in older houses where you can, and away from the wall behind a radiator, where the warm, dusty updraught greys the bottom of a pale cord within a year.
Looking after it once it is up
Take it down twice a year, shake it outdoors and leave it over the back of a chair for a day. That is the whole maintenance routine.
While it is down, put your hand on the wall behind it. A wall that feels colder or smells different from the rest of the room has changed since you hung the piece, and it is far better to learn that with the hanging in your hands than from a mark across the back of it.
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