Framing a carpet
Posted: Sun 14 Nov, 2021 12:43 pm
A customer brought to me what at first I thought was going to be a piece of fabric art for framing but in reality, in size and thickness, is more equivalent to a carpet. I have a attached some photos. It is approx 1.5 metres square and they want it framed, without glass, in a wide flat wooden frame. It seems to me that the way to do this is to treat as an oil painting and stretch it on to stretchers that would need to be bespoke.
However, unlike an oil painting, there is no excess material beyond the artwork I can grip while stretching it onto the stretcher bar. I could grip the fabric and wrap some of it round the stretcher bar, thus hiding part of the piece. It would also create thickness problems at the corners where the material would need to fold that I suppose could be dealt with by routing the interior frame corners to accommodate this extra thickness.
Attachment to the stretchers would be by stainless steel staples. These are my thoughts so far. Has anyone encountered a job like this and are there better/easier ways to deal with it?
However, unlike an oil painting, there is no excess material beyond the artwork I can grip while stretching it onto the stretcher bar. I could grip the fabric and wrap some of it round the stretcher bar, thus hiding part of the piece. It would also create thickness problems at the corners where the material would need to fold that I suppose could be dealt with by routing the interior frame corners to accommodate this extra thickness.
Attachment to the stretchers would be by stainless steel staples. These are my thoughts so far. Has anyone encountered a job like this and are there better/easier ways to deal with it?