Stretching Painted Linen

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Contemplations
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Stretching Painted Linen

Post by Contemplations »

Hi!

TL;DR: how do you stretch painted linen canvas with no stretch to it tight across a stretcher frame? RSG sizing is not an option. Canvases are 1.5+ m along longest dimension.

I own/run a framing shop, but have only been framing for about six months. How I got into it is a long story, but essentially I've got a problem that I'm hoping you wonderful people might be able to help with, because my newbie butt sure has no idea how to fix it. XD

A customer brought in a bunch of canvases for stretching for display in an exhibition. I've done some of them, but about half of them are painted on linen. This is where the problem lies - linen (or at least these canvases) has no stretch to it! Even finger pressure, never mind my stretching pliers, rips the canvas off the staples on the other side. Almost everything I can find online talks about stretching raw/unpainted linen and using RSG (rabbit sinew glue) or another glue to basically shrink the canvas onto the stretcher bar. Between these canvases being already painted, the fact that I'm at least a three hour drive from any kind of specialty store (and honestly would probs have to go to a different state to find anything like RSG, which would be at least a thirty hour drive), and I can't afford to perhaps ruin these canvases by trying something like RSG anyway, I'm really feeling stuck. They're all really big, too, 1.5m or more along the longest dimension, which just compound the sagging problem.

I've stretched one linen canvas, and it's still really saggy and loose on the frame. Not just in my opinion; the customer commented on it too.

I'm giving an attempt at wetting the back of the stretched canvas and letting it dry and shrink, as suggested by the internet. So far, it's not looking great - maybe a smidge tighter, but it could take days per canvas. There has been some suggestion of wetting the back then putting a hairdryer to it, but I'm terrified it'll buckle and warp the canvas.

I did come across something that suggested starting stretching linen canvases at the corners rather than stapling the middles and working outwards, so I'm going to give it a go. I need to take the already stretched one off and cut down the frame (customer decided actually they don't want a border around the edge), so I'll give that a go when I do that later today. The only other option I can think of is gluing the canvases to MDF board and pressing them flat, but that would be a last-ditch, if-all-else-fails sort of option.

I was wondering if anyone here had any experience stretching painted linen (or just raw linen) and getting it nice and tight on the frame? Any hints, tips or walkthroughs you can direct me to would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Tricia.
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Re: Stretching Painted Linen

Post by Justintime »

First thing that comes to mind is that Hotpress/Drytac do an adhesive specifically to adhere canvas to board in a vacuum press (assuming that the work can withstand heat and pressure?). I would assume that they also do one for a Drytac cold roller press, which are used by a lot of sign writer businesses.
I wouldn't use MDF because of the inherent acidity in the board, resulting in future damage to the work. That's assuming these pieces have a value? There are many types of display board suitable for this. Again the value should dictate the quality (and cost) of the board.
It may also be worth considering adding a donor edge of fabric to the linen. This would be very time consuming/expensive, but may give you the ability to stretch it correctly. This technique is used when lacing delicate fabrics to board. I would ask the customer if they have a sample of the fabric that you can experiment with. They'll be shocked by the labour costs for this sort of work, but as is often said, we're not magicians...
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Re: Stretching Painted Linen

Post by Not your average framer »

I have needed to stretch paintings on linen and stapling, or using tacks to fix linen to a stretcher frame does not work. I was taught how to do these where I first worked at Triton galleries in Torquay. The linen was laid face down on to a flat surface and the front edge of the stretcher frame was glued and the lowered in to place on the reverse side of the painting. The painting had already been taped at the edges onto a sturdy piece of dispoable board to help stretch out the linen reasonably flat. It was taped using a wide, but easily removable tape and the reverse face of the painting was lightly moistened allowed to slowly dry, which helps to flatten it.

A rigid board is placed on top of the stretcher frame and then weights are placed on top of this board to hold the stretcher frame fully in contact with the linen while the glue fully sets. I can't remember exactly what the glue was called, but it was water based and fully water reversible. After the glue had set and this took a while, then the tape around the edges was removed and the board at the front of the painting was no longer attached to painting and could simply fall away as the painting was lifted away. The surplus linen arould the edges was now neatly folded around the stretcher frame litterally finger tight and stapled at the back.

If necessary the rear of the painting could now be wiped over with an almost dry wet sponge and left to dry which will slightly tighten the linen a little, using a hairdrier is not a great idea as it wants to dry slowly and gently. Painting on to linen is not as uncommon as you might images, it's certainly less common than painting of canvas, but I've had a few come along from time to time. Some have been painted in this country, but some have also come from greece and turkey as well. The linen it's self has ofter been sized with something (possibly something starchy). The foreign paintings often seem to have been painted for the tourist trade with an unknown type of matt paint, which I can not identify.
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Re: Stretching Painted Linen

Post by JFeig »

Welcome,
I have a question or two.

What type of "paint" was used on the fabric? Was this fabric pre-primed by the artist?

As a matter of clarification is the "linen" bed linen, I.E. very thin and very weak?
If so, I would only use "adjustable stretcher bars" for support. By using them you do not have to apply so much pressure to the fabric while stretching. After the fabric is stretched, keys can be inserted into the corners to tighten up the fabric. The use of bed linen, often used and weaker that new, is problematic with works purchased on holidays in third world locations.
If the art was from a domestic artist in the UK, they are trying to make their decision of poor materials your problem. They need a case of reality.
In either case there is an upcharge for work done on art done with obvious sub-standard.

Mark, much of the travel momento paintings on fabric are done in gauche, opaque water colors, or tempera paints.
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Re: Stretching Painted Linen

Post by Not your average framer »

Thanks Jerome,

I was definitely thinking tempera, maybe poster paints as well, quite often these paintings seem like they have been waxed as well, but it's not that easy to be definitive about it. The paintings from the Africa side of the meditarranean are very different in both style a paint colours, both the ones from Africa are often made from bed sheets and pigments mixed in to household paints, or cheap PVA glue and these do not stretch well at all.
Mark Lacey

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Re: Stretching Painted Linen

Post by Contemplations »

Hi all!

Thank you so much for all your help, I really appreciate it! I'll give the board and glue method that Mark suggested a try, as unfortunately I just don't think I'll have the time to get in anything like Drytac (the curse of living in rural Australia!!). But I will definitely look into it for future use, so thank you very much for mentioning it, Justin. I feel like cold press would be the way to go, as I already have a vacuum press and don't want to find out the hard way how sensitive the art is to heat, haha! I don't get *many* linen canvases in, but they're more common than I'd have expected, honestly.

Good questions, Jerome! I'm assuming it's acrylic paint, since that's what most of the local indigenous artists use (dries quickly to so it can be easily moved around and not too expensive compared to oils) and it certainly looks like acrylic rather than the heavier layering I'd expect of oils. Luckily (or not) it's a real proper linen canvas, not a bedsheet or anything like that (although I have had to stretch an old curtain that had been painted on before, and suffered a similar sagging issue, though not due to the staples ripping through. A thousand staples later, and it was... okay. Not great, but passable). So definitely not a case of sub-standard materials, just difficult ones. As to the priming, can't say if the artist primed the canvas themselves or not, but it looks to have *been* primed at least. I might have a look into adjustable stretcher bars, too, since they do sound like they'd be useful in cases like this.

Thank you so much again, and I'll hopefully remember to post an update in this thread once I've tried the suggestion(s) to let you all know how I went. :)

Have a wonderful day,

Tricia.
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Re: Stretching Painted Linen

Post by prospero »

The term "Stretching" is a bit misleading when it comes to paintings on fabric. The aim is to get it
taut and flat with no excessive 'flop'. You don't actually have to get it drum-tight, in fact on flimsy
fabric paintings it's desirable to avoid stretching it. Backing the piece with mountboard placed on the bars
is a good idea. :D
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Contemplations
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Re: Stretching Painted Linen

Post by Contemplations »

Hi all!

Thanks once again for all your help! Surprise lockdown ruined all my good intentions on using the glue and backing board technique - with 6 pieces, I didn't have the time or space to test and do them all in the (suddenly much shorter) timeframe with that method. Ended up trying to stretch by starting with the corners and working in, and many staples later, plus some sore hands from doing it manually without the pliers, and I've got pretty decent results! Yay! It's also better for my client, since they wanted the pieces to be easily removable, and while the thin line of glue involved in the other method wasn't going to be hard to remove by any means, this is just pulling out seventy-thousand staples and bam - off the frame.

I will definitely be looking into some of the other suggestions for future, and I'll be keeping the glue option in mind too for stretches that are meant to be permanent.

Have a great day, everyone, and thanks again!
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Re: Stretching Painted Linen

Post by Justintime »

Great that it went well! In future I can recommend one staple in the middle of each side, followed by one either side of that one round and round. That's the way we were taught to stretch canvas.
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