I use two plates, one on each side of the object. I always try to have double my surface area in anode to cathode and rotate my item every hour or so.
I had a few salmon false starts when I first got my set-up going. This is the acorn that changed my method, it looked bad, but I tried to use it any way. The plating came off after very little handling.
I switched from wire to two plates and my results were spot on. I dip my plates in HCl to clean, use a lacquer to seal organic material, dry thoroughly, graphite paint, and dry thoroughly. I strike my items with a low power flow for about 5 minutes, then it set for normal plating and check hourly-ish.