Stretching a Painting on a bed sheet

[Framernathan]

I've seen a couple of posts on the Framers Forum about stretching holiday paintings but none of them deal with my specific problem.

I have a painting painted on thin cotton/Bed sheet. The fabric used is quite tight and not very elastic.

Since it is not very valuable, I tried stretching it on an economy stretcher (with fixed corners) but because it is not very elastic, it does not pull taut. I don't want to pull it too tight and overstretch it.

I would like some advice. Would the best option be to wet mount it onto board or to invest in an artists' stretcher with corner wedges?

I'd rather not wet mount a painting if possible but I am not sure how much tension the painting could take if corner wedges are used.

Any advice?

Thanks

Nathan

[prospero]

Wet mounting might be OK as long as there are no unpainted areas where the glue might bleed though and there are no oily patches on the back that might affect adhesion.

The trick I've found is to hod the piece firmly under weight while the glue dries. I've done this in the past using two sheets of 3/4" chipboard. Release paper on the canvas and a foam blanket on top. Brush on a generous coat of PVA glue (or Unibond) to a good solid board. 2.5 MDF is good. You have to work fast. Slap on the release paper/blanket/top board and pile as much heavy stuff on top as you can find. Leave for a few hours or overnight if you can.

It's all a bit of a performance though. The drawback with wet mounting is that if you get a section that hasn't stuck, you are errrrr....stuck with it. You can't get it off and have another go.

All the bed sheet art I have stretched suffered from being too stretchy rather than too taut.

If I could get hold of keyed bars the right size I would try that first. You might try the slotted bars which you can cut to any length and insert ply triangles in the corners. I've used these with some success but the is a definite knack to tensioning them. A reasonable compromise system, but nowhere as good as proper double-mortise joints when it comes to a tricky canvas.

[Framernathan]

Thanks for that.

I think wet mounting is the best solution. Thanks for the tips on how to do that also!