Stretching Pre-Primed Canvas

Sharon Knettell · 07-26-2005, 03:07 PM

I, ahem, do a gallery wrap on my big canvasses. Let me tell you, plan to spend a day, lots of sweat and more foul lanquage than you are used to using.

I put a large piece of plywood, bigger than the canvas stretchers, on two saw horses. I have adjustable metal ones so I can make it the most comfortable height for me to work easily.

Cut the canvas about 5" wider than the stretchers-this is good for the 1 3/4" depth Twin Brooks stretchers I use. I usually draw a pencil line the size of the stretchers on the back and front of of the linen to use as a reference to keep it straight. I staple the first staple the usual way, in the middle but on the back of the stretcher, followed by a second and third on either side. I then staple the opposite side pulling the canvas away from me using quite a bit of torque on my molydenum pliers. It takes a bit of practice. I cannot pull from the other side because the canvasses I use are generally too large to reach the other side. You can do a standard stretching procedure if your canvas is a reasonable size.

Follow this procedure on the other sides. You will need the three staples, especially on a larger canvas, to allow you to pull the canvas tight enough without them pulling out.

The Ralph Mayer book has a great diagram on making canvas corners. I do not make diagonal folds on the corners, but I bring the canvas to and over the edge on the sides. I fold the top of the canvas edge so the edge is square to the stretcher edge and pull it over the tucked side edges. It is hard to describe but if you fool with it it works great. I do not cut anything and I always have a canvas to show in a pinch. I paint the edges.

I also work from the center to an edge and start again to the adjacent staples and work toward the corner I just finished. I put the bulky part of the edges on the top and the bottom. It can take a lot of restretching, so don't tamp the staples down until you are sure it is perfect.

I hope this helps.

Linda Brandon · 07-26-2005, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sharon Knettell

I, ahem, do a gallery wrap on my big canvasses. Let me tell you, plan to spend a day, lots of sweat and more foul lanquage than you are used to using.

I should have made Garth stretch a canvas for me when I had him trapped in my studio last month.

Sharon, I'm printing out these instructions and I'm going to give it another try, thank you! I just got back from the art store, where I impulse-bought some copper tacks for their Old Master panache. Maybe I'll try this as well but I predict even more foul language if I use them.

Michele, I will take you up on your Seattle offer one of these days!

Sharon Knettell · 07-26-2005, 05:54 PM

Linda,

Alas, you cannot use tacks on this application unless you have three hands, one to grip the canvas, one to place the tacks and one to swing the hammer. You can do it on a smaller canvas but not on a biggie, I have tried. I prefer the tacks myself as they are indeed more elegant.

Carol Norton · 07-26-2005, 07:04 PM

As I just stretched a canvas with the portrait already on it, I would like to know if anyone else does this regularly. Are there any problems that I should know about before I do it again? Thank you for any and all advice.

Michele Rushworth · 07-26-2005, 08:00 PM

I would think there would be great potential for distortion in doing that, if there is the least bit of uneven tension in the stretching process.

Linda Brandon · 07-26-2005, 09:26 PM

Carol, I usually glue mine to panels when I have a "keeper" on unstretched canvas. I varnish after I glue it to the panel, though I'm not sure it would make any difference if you varnished first. I think there's a thread somewhere on the Forum about gluing linen to panels.

Sharon Knettell · 07-27-2005, 08:02 AM

Carol,

That is a definite NO!

The stretching process creates innumerable fissures in the surface of the paint that could lead to cracking in the future.

Stanka Kordic · 08-01-2005, 04:52 PM

Great suggestions everyone, in the nick of time for me. I have a few additional questions:

Can one request the help of a spouse and still remain married after completing the stretching ordeal?

I need to ship said stretched 6'x4' canvas overseas. What is the best way to do this? Remove, ship and restretch?? after all that? OR...Crate??

help.

Allan Rahbek · 08-01-2005, 05:30 PM

Stanka,

If I vere to trust anyone to do the job of restretching such a finished painting I would search for a person from an art supply shop. Many shops have a person that handle stretching of new canvasses for sale in the shop. Maybe your client could persuade such one to do the job. Or a framer.

Allan

Juan Martinez · 08-04-2005, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stanka Kordic

Great suggestions everyone, in the nick of time for me. I have a few additional questions:

Can one request the help of a spouse and still remain married after completing the stretching ordeal?

I need to ship said stretched 6'x4' canvas overseas. What is the best way to do this? Remove, ship and restretch?? after all that? OR...Crate??

help.

Stanka, most people I know that have stretched canvases of that size would roll them for shipping, and have a trusted person on the other end, re-stretch them. It is much less expensive to ship, and I assume that is the main reason to do it.

Linda and Garth may recall that Paul Newton had his award winning painting at the PSA conference rolled up to ship from Australia. He rolled it back up and took it on the plane home, too. It was a commission, so it was indeed something that he needed to be careful about. I'm sure it was done on commercially pre-primed acrylic gessoed canvas. Anyway, it wasn't too old.

Oh, yes, Linda, as far as "what is too old" goes, I don't really know. But, I imagine you can get away with a lot, depending on the thickness of paint and on the particular ground. I have a couple of paintings from when I was 12 years old that are rolled up and, when unrolled periodically, do not show any cracks whatsoever. They were done on canvas paper (whatever that is). On the other hand, I have 6 year old pre-primed canvas from Rigacci's in Florence, Italy, on a wide roll that is all cracked and fissured. It is useless. Paintings done on it are very crack prone already. The priming is some sort of glue-chalk concoction, and no matter what the claims of flexibility are by the manufacturer, it isn't.

Juan