The Framers Forum

Can anyone point me in the right direction as how to finish corners when stretching a canvas by hand?
I make my own canvases for my acrylic paintings that I then frame. However I cannot find a site that shows clearly how to get a neat finish on the corner folds.
I guess those of you who make your own canvas have stretcher machines, I dont have one of these as my volume is quite small and I cannot justify the cost of a stretcher unit. Please could someone post some pointers for me on this matter, or post a site they know of that shows corner finishing clearly.

Many thank as always.

I think the lion website has an article on canvas stretching. I stretch loads of canvases - I dont use any machine apart from good quality canvas stretching pliers. Folding the corners is very straight forward - but dont be fooled by many of the canvases you see with nice neat flat corners - you will find that they have cut some canvas away to reduce the bulk. If you are stretching blank canvas do you dampen it slightly first.? You can get a much tighter finish with much less effort if the canvas is slightly moist.

Corner folds look their neatest when the turnovers are at the top and base of a canvas, being less visible, especially on box canvases.
Obviously the thinner materials are easier in this aspect.

Stretching by hand is an art to be learned, like anything else in our trade.

Thank you for your answers but can someone please show me how they are done?

http://www.pictureframingmagazine.com/p ... ineArt.pdf PFM article

http://www.framingsupplies.com/Fredrix/ ... Canvas.pdf

http://www.artsparx.com/canvasstretching.asp

http://painting.about.com/library/weekly/aa012102a.htm

http://h41186.www4.hp.com/country/us/en ... ntry_id=12

Any time - I'me in Gloucestershire. Dermots links are very good.

Thank you very much for the links Dermot & you to markw

Try this link.

http://www.canvas-stretching-machine.co ... folds.html

As foxy says, the thinner the canvas, the easier it is.

I produce quite a lot of Epson canvas prints and find them fairly difficult to get really neat as the canvas is quite bulky and the printed surface quite delicate.

WelshFramer wrote:As foxy says, the thinner the canvas, the easier it is.

I produce quite a lot of Epson canvas prints and find them fairly difficult to get really neat as the canvas is quite bulky and the printed surface quite delicate.

in my experience the canvases used for inkjet printing are generally horrible to stretch. whilst you may get nice neat corners on the thinner canvases getting enough pull on them to get a tight finish can be very difficult.

When you see canvases with very neat flat corners - especially canvas wraps, you can put money on it that someone has cut away the excess canvas. You can neatly tuck and fold any canvas but it will always create a slight bulge on the corners - unless you cut the angle off - not something I would do unless specifically asked to do so - even then reluctantly.

I was always of the opinion that I shouldn't cut the corners but with relatively cheap inkjet canvases it's probably the easist way.

I've just tried putting a matt laminate onto my canvases and I think that should help to stop any tearing if I do cut the corners. I've not tried stretching any of my laminated canvases yet, though.

Just wondering, is it possible to varnish inkjet-printed canvas?

Moglet wrote:Just wondering, is it possible to varnish inkjet-printed canvas?

May depend on the type of varnish. I've used acrylic texturing varnish on Epson-printed canvases and a client has painted over them with acrylics.

A coat of texturing varnish and/or a few dollops of paint make it look almost like an original.

I keep meaning to experiment with cackelure varnish to open up the possibility of forging old masters.

Hi Mike
My local printer (round the corner from me) uses a machine roller to laminate his Giclee (Epson ink jet printed canvasses) and we box frame them or put them on stretchers - as required by customer.

The laminate increases the thickness and stiffens the corners making the corner folds a little more difficult (a touch).

As mentioned earlier though, all our folds are on the top and the bottom of the canvas. Whilst working with them the 'corner bump' seems quite large. Yet when on the wall and viewed from a reasonable distance the corner folds seem to disappear.

We have not found any difficulty with stretching these laminated ones to bars using a decent set of canvas pliers.

Hope that helps

Thanks for the feedback on the varnish, Mike. I'm hoping somewhere down the line to offer an art reproduction service and, given how vulnerable printed canvasses can be - particularly if the image is to be presented as a wrap - I am interested in finding possible ways to protect the finished pieces.

I make one fold per side IOW fold the top right hand corner, turn the thing through 90 degrees, fold the top right corner, etc.

This way there is an equal amount of 'bulk' on all 4 sides and not some bulk (eg) top and bottom but none left and right.

Never mind how it looks if you are framing it - boxed canvas (gallery wrap) - sure - make all the folds on the top and bottom with the fold as close as poss to 90 degrees - i.e. close to the corner - if it's being framed then a 45-60 degree fold away from the corner is easier to do and creates less bulk as there is less canvas to fold under that angle

I say 'never mind how it looks' - the neater and tighter, obviously the better.

If a framed canvas has the bulk only on two sides, then you'll need an unequal amount of play in the rebate on two opposing sides compared to the other two sides and if the vertical sides have that extra bulk - i.e. you have made the folds top and bottom, you could end up with a canvas almost popping out of the top, as that extra (and uneccessary) play will be taken up at the bottom, or could be.

Also this way is easier - all your folds are exactly the same configuration and your hands do the same thing each corner.

Moglet wrote:Thanks for the feedback on the varnish, Mike. I'm hoping somewhere down the line to offer an art reproduction service and, given how vulnerable printed canvasses can be - particularly if the image is to be presented as a wrap - I am interested in finding possible ways to protect the finished pieces.

Until recently I've been using Printguard spray (http://www.marrutt.com/printguard.php). It offers some protection against marking but canvases still need to be treated as fragile.

The other week a photographer returned three canvases that she'd scratched carrying them round to various exhibitions so I spend a leisurely hour retouching them.

Now I've got a vacuum heat press I've started to laminate them with matt pvc laminate and that produces a good result. The laminate is almost invisible and very tough. The other advantage is that I don't have to let the canvases dry for 24 hours before processing them.

Merlin wrote:The laminate increases the thickness and stiffens the corners making the corner folds a little more difficult (a touch).

I've stretched one laminated canvas (printed elsewhere) and on the whole it seemed easier because the ink didn't crack at the fold. That meant that, if I didn't get it right first time I could try again.

It is interesting to me to see that a number of you laminate canvases - maybe what we have to deal with in Brisbane is different from the UK, but this action seems to be a great risk to me

The range, and quality of canvases we receive vary greatly and I will not entertain any request to laminate, fix or otherwise apply a protective covering to a canvas image prior to stretching

Knowing the cost of some of the photographic prints that have been transferred onto canvas, I am not going to place myself in the situation of attempting a process that potentially could backfire on me!

We stretch canvases for customers, after warning them of the potential for damage to the image - we just do not know the materials used to produce the canvas image to be able to professionally advise the customer of their best course of action to preserve the image on the canvas. I always suggest they get that advice from the person/company that produce the product

Would be interested to hear what controls are in place when you decide to laminate a canvas

Ross

ross wrote:It is interesting to me to see that a number of you laminate canvases - maybe what we have to deal with in Brisbane is different from the UK, but this action seems to be a great risk to me

But then I only laminate canvases I print myself. If I damage one (which has hapened once) then I just print it again.

I wouldn't want to laminate a canvas from another source unless I knew it was replaceable -- or the customer understood and accepted the risk.