Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: Mike Guilbault on May 14, 2013, 10:50:23 pm
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Trying to get the most out of my rolls of canvas, but for a couple of recent prints, I didn't leave enough extra canvas for stretching. Now they hang on my wall with thumbtacks (so that's where the term 'tacky' comes from!! ;) ). How much room do you typically leave for stretching? I realize there is more needed for gallery wraps, so I'm interested in what you have extra after the image area?
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I use 3/4" thick stretcher bar material. I do a 1" mirror border and allow at least one inch of unprinted canvas beyond that as a "handle" to grab the canvas for stretching.
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If you have the right kind of pliers, and you're willing to trade off a little canvas for ease of use, you need...
the depth of the bars
plus the width of the bars
plus about an inch or two
That lets you use "gallery wrap pliers" with two forward protruding tongs that register on the inside "sides" of the bars. Piece o' cake starting with your third or fourth canvas. But if you like aggravation you can get by with just the depth of the bars plus about 2/3 the width. Don't forget the power stapler.
(http://images.utrechtart.com/products/optionSmall/Osborne/34179.jpg)
edit...I don't necessarily recommend those Osborne pliers, they're just an example of the type of prongs that I feel work best with gallery wrap.
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So Peter, that's a total of 2 inches beyond the original image. What are you stretching with?
I'm using the BC Stretch Relief pliers and just read that they recommend 3" in total; 3/4" depth + 1.5" stretcher width + another 3/4" for gripping. Wish I had read that before printing 5 canvases with only 2" of extra material.
Just using a hand stapler at the moment Bill. I guess I'll chalk these up to the learning curve.
Sure glad I got the 9900 though and not the 7900!
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You can probably get those canvases wrapped around a 3/4" high frame is you are willing to maintain a great deal of arm and wrist strain, without the ability to brace against the frame itself for leverage.
Have a friend who works that way with these welding vice grips. He filed a lot of notches in the part of the pliers that lead away from big lips, that gives a certain of grip against the bars. But it still stresses muscles one rarely uses. Helps if one person stretches using both hands, while another drives the stapes.
(http://www.amsisupply.com/graphics/vice%20grips/23-large.gif)
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So Peter, that's a total of 2 inches beyond the original image. What are you stretching with?
Pliers similar to what Bill shows. Proper canvas pliers, in other words. They pivot on the inside of the stretcher bar and can exert amazing leverage.
And an air stapler. Best $100 you can spend for canvas work. Mine is an upholstery stapler. It has a long nose that makes precise staple location easy. Quiet, too.
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It seems like it's a requirement of these 'Stretch-Relief' pliers then - that extra 3/4" of canvas so they can grip it. They work beautifully when there's enough canvas and going forward I'll just make sure there's enough, but I may get a pair of the regular canvas pliers for these already printed ones - cheaper than reprinting and getting new stretcher bars.
Another question while I have you here... does it make any difference in stretching which way an image is printed on canvas, i.e. the grain of the canvas running horizontal on a vertical image?
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It seems like it's a requirement of these 'Stretch-Relief' pliers then - that extra 3/4" of canvas so they can grip it. They work beautifully when there's enough canvas and going forward I'll just make sure there's enough, but I may get a pair of the regular canvas pliers for these already printed ones - cheaper than reprinting and getting new stretcher bars.
Another question while I have you here... does it make any difference in stretching which way an image is printed on canvas, i.e. the grain of the canvas running horizontal on a vertical image?
Hi Mike!
1) Not sure why you would need to purchase new stretcher bars. You should be able to just remove the canvas and stretch the reprinted canvas onto the existing stretcher bars.
2) The orientation of the canvas grain doesn't matter as you will be ultimately stretching both grain patterns of the canvas anyway since you're pulling on all four sides. However you will probably want to resize the image about 1% on the long side of the canvas because most canvases will shrink, either during printing or after you apply coating. The width of the roll shouldn't ever shrink. You will most likely notice the shrinkage as small as an 18" print although the shrinkage will be very small at that size.
I also have the stretch relief pliers and can't recommend them enough to those who stretch their own canvas!
Cheers!
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I find the stretcher kits made by Breathing color and others to be great because they don't require extra canvas for the stretching process. I have a 7900 and with 1-3/4 bars the image area can be (24 minus 3-1/2) 20-1/2 inches wide. If I had to leave another inch of bare canvas on each side for stretching I'd be limited to 18". They surely cost more than bare stretcher bars, but well worth it.
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I find the stretcher kits made by Breathing color and others to be great because they don't require extra canvas for the stretching process. I have a 7900 and with 1-3/4 bars the image area can be (24 minus 3-1/2) 20-1/2 inches wide. If I had to leave another inch of bare canvas on each side for stretching I'd be limited to 18". They surely cost more than bare stretcher bars, but well worth it.
Peter...
Are you talking about the EasyWrappe kits? I am new to canvas and was thinking of trying them (17" 4900).
There videos seem to indicate no need for stretching tools. I assume some stretching when the barsare rotated 90 deg.
John
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The EasyWrappe-style bars do require less, but you still need to add about 1/2" or so to each dimension after accounting for the wrap to ensure you can fold it back and staple it for a clean finish.
If you are just doing your first canvases, the EasyWrappe-style bars are great. Here's our collected list of companies selling that system (or one like it): http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=67930.0.
Neil
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Hi Mike!
1) Not sure why you would need to purchase new stretcher bars. You should be able to just remove the canvas and stretch the reprinted canvas onto the existing stretcher bars.
Of course! wasn't thinking - again.
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The standard is usually 3" of material past the image. This allows enough material to wrap around any current bars AND give enough material to get a good grip with the stretching pliers. At least, that is what the typical charge is for printing on canvas... print plus 3" around.
Those ones you shorted can be mounted onto gatorboard or something and then framed.. you know by a frame shop. I happen to know of one in Maine who does really nice work!! ;D
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I have the same pliers but bought them from original fabricator when they were called Pitbull Stretcher Tool. What I do is this:
If I am going to make a 16x20 canvas, I resize image to 16.10x20.10 inches so I can have a little extra wiggle room on the edges without having to worry about lining up the edge perfectly. I then add a 2" mirror edge so it becomes 20.10x24.10 in total size. You need at least 1.5" of extra canvas to even grip the canvas to pull. I use 2" extra all around my finished print.
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The easy wraps are great, the web site has a video showing how to use them.
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Maine is a little far to go from Elmvale, Ontario framah.. but thanks for pointing that out. ;)
I'm going to reprint with 3" in addition to the image size. I may try mounting these existing ones to gatorboad too. I know Bill T. has great success with this. May just convert me!