touristiko

I’ve had some problems in the past stretching canvas and seeing as it is a part of the stenciling process, I figure it is worthwhile making a tutorial.  For  this we are going to make a frame 60cm by 40cm.

Things you will need:

Framing Wood

Tape Measure

Some type of circular saw

Wood Glue

at least 50mm screws with corresponding screw driver

Hand held planer or file

Artists Canvas – usually can be found in art supply shops or fabric stores

Stapler

Flathead Screwdriver

White Paint

Paint brush

The idea is to get the angles on the corners of the frame right. 45 degrees exactly, or it will be a nightmare to glue and it will also look bad when it hangs crookedly on the wall.

In the bottom picture, the piece I’m looking to cut isn’t the piece on the right, but the piece where my hand is. A tablesaw works very well for this part as it allows each cut to be exactly the same angle without one having to rely on the actual drawn line, and it allows one to get them all exactly the same lenght by just shaving a few millimeters off at a time if necessary to get the lengths right.

So the four pieces I’ve cut look something like this:

Now, to join the corners, I’ve drilled them where I want to put screws later first.

Then I’ve glued them using wood glue.

Next I’ve put the screws in. Usually I attach two pieces to each other, let them dry, even use clamps to clamp them down, then attach all four later, once again attaching clamps to make sure the whole thing lies fairly flat.  Wiping away the excess glue, it should look something like this:

So I’ve let those dry overnight.  One good thing to do is use a hand planer to shave off the corners of the wood around the frame on the side that will have canvas stretched over it.  This ensures that the canvas looks nice and even when stretched, and if you are using rough wood like I am here, it will mean that the strange bumps are taken out.  Moving on, I’m ready to begin stretching the canvas.

I’ve attached one side using staples.

Then the other

Then the other two sides.

Now I am gradually working towards the corners, maximum two staples at a time in a star shaped pattern, just like changing a tire so that all the wrinkles get worked out.

To get the corners nice, I use a screw driver to fold the underside in underneath the top layer of canvas then staple them, ensuring that I do all corners the same way so that they don’t look weird.

So the canvas should look like this:

The final step, if you want, is to gesso the thing. Some people buy actual gesso to paint on it, but I just use white paint. It’s up to you.  For my projects it’s not necessary -and I tend to wonder if gesso is anything different from acrylic paint.

So there’s the final canvas that is ready to go for an art project!