Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Canvas Stretching

  1. Start by placing the stretcher on top of the canvas
  2. Then staple in the middle of each length pulling the canvas reasonably tight following the numbers
  3. Now, the next circuit of staples starts to the right of the first staple you put in. Then the right of the other middle staples
  4. The next circuit follows the same rationale but to the left of your original staple on each side
  5. On this example this many staples is enough to get to the corner but obviously with a larger canvas you will need to keep going around until you have got to the corners
  6. There are a different ways to fold the corners so I will try to will explain the easiest and neatest, first of all turn the canvas so the front (the surface you will paint on) faces you, then taking hold of the loose material as shown, you then need to stretch the material over the corner without putting a hole in the canvas by pulling it over the corner a bit like hanging a coat on a peg.
  7. Quickly staple one side so you have a free hand
  8. Then if you have ever roofed a shed or made a bed using hospital corners you will understand this bit. The picture is not great but the idea is that you tuck the fold underneath the material so you cant see it. Keep practising this bit if you dont get it straight away Always go directly opposite your previous corner
  9. The back should look something like this, if during painting the canvas becomes looses all you need to do is spray or sponge the back with water this will tighten the canvas back to the state just after primimg

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