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Author Topic: Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.  (Read 16893 times)

dgberg

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« on: January 31, 2009, 01:42:42 pm »

Well I've done at least a dozen wraps with my new Gallery Stretcher and the corners are not getting any prettier. I have tried the bedsheet corners but really want a square fold down. I watched the video the Gallery Stretcher company has on Utube about 20 times and still no luck. The guy does it so fast and then stands in front of the machine when he tucks the corners. If he only knew that is the only part of the video I am interested in. My ends are long,maybe too long. The issue maybe their is no place to go with all that materials. Any help is appreciated.
Dan Berg

chilehead

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2009, 03:18:18 pm »

Not sure if it helps, but there is a short, close-up video on the company's home page:

http://www.canvas-stretching-machine.com/

Here's a direct link to the video:

http://www.canvas-stretching-machine.com/video3.cfm

Mark
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dgberg

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #2 on: January 31, 2009, 05:03:36 pm »

Quote from: chilehead
Not sure if it helps, but there is a short, close-up video on the company's home page:

http://www.canvas-stretching-machine.com/

Here's a direct link to the video:

http://www.canvas-stretching-machine.com/video3.cfm

Mark

Mark
I've seen this Gallery Stretcher video at least 20 times and you cannot see how the canvas is folded and wrapped underneath. When I do the 1 1/2" thick stretchers their is 2" of canvas to fold and it just does not lay properly for me.
Dan Berg
« Last Edit: January 31, 2009, 05:04:17 pm by Dan Berg »
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DRoss

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2009, 08:59:21 pm »

When you fold the extra material under the flap only go half way, the crease under the flap lays at a 45 degree angle as opposed to flush with the top.
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dgberg

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2009, 09:21:40 pm »

Quote from: DRoss
When you fold the extra material under the flap only go half way, the crease under the flap lays at a 45 degree angle as opposed to flush with the top.



Do you mean what they call a hospital bed corner? Is is proper to have the finished corner mitered rather then flush with the outer edge? I also use Genuine Fractals 6 for the gallery wrap expansion. The dead corners are all white which is part of the problem when you finish with a mitered corner. You have white showing on all the edges.
Dan Berg
« Last Edit: January 31, 2009, 09:24:31 pm by Dan Berg »
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Bob Smith

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2009, 03:18:21 am »

I use a different stretcher but their instructional video might help.  The corner folding method is shown in good detail even if the overall video quality is less than great.  It involves cutting away a bit of the material that gets folded under in order to create a fold that lies flatter.  Even if you don't want to cut away as much as is shown, the method of folding will still work.  It just won't lie quit as flat.

http://canvasstretcher.com/video.htm

the process is not as tedious as it looks.  Once you've done it a few times, it goes very quickly.

And yes it think it would help you not to have white corners at the fold.  I usually make extensions of the image for gallery wraps by mirroring the existing image into the area that wraps around the edges.  I may do the top and bottom edges first.  Then mirror all of the resulting image to create the side wrap areas.  That results in full image coverage into the folded areas so that I don't have to worry about a white area showing at an edge.
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dgberg

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2009, 12:02:27 pm »

Quote from: Bob Smith
I use a different stretcher but their instructional video might help.  The corner folding method is shown in good detail even if the overall video quality is less than great.  It involves cutting away a bit of the material that gets folded under in order to create a fold that lies flatter.  Even if you don't want to cut away as much as is shown, the method of folding will still work.  It just won't lie quit as flat.

http://canvasstretcher.com/video.htm

the process is not as tedious as it looks.  Once you've done it a few times, it goes very quickly.

And yes it think it would help you not to have white corners at the fold.  I usually make extensions of the image for gallery wraps by mirroring the existing image into the area that wraps around the edges.  I may do the top and bottom edges first.  Then mirror all of the resulting image to create the side wrap areas.  That results in full image coverage into the folded areas so that I don't have to worry about a white area showing at an edge.

Bob
I watched the video per your link and the guy spends several minutes fooling around and then trimming the corners. The guy doing the gallery stretcher video takes less then 2 seconds to fold and slip the folded edge into the stretcher machine. I am still missing something I'm sure.
Dan Berg

Bartone

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #7 on: February 01, 2009, 02:05:07 pm »

I've done a grand total of FOUR so far, so I'm quite experienced...
After looking at other vendors, I decided to attack the corners with a combination of hospital bed and an exacto. I do the hospital bed corner, and cut away the extra stuff that makes for the messy look. Maybe it's my canvas (Fredrix) but it's too thick to do a perfect job without some machinery.

The other thing - I decided to coat the canvas AFTER I stretched it, and I'm thinking 'mistake'. The coating seems to have relaxed the canvas a bit, so it's not stretched as tight as it was (or is it my imagination?). I'll use the corner wedges to tighten it up, but in the future, I'll try coating it before stretching it.

bartone
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Bob Smith

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #8 on: February 01, 2009, 02:47:22 pm »

Quote from: Dan Berg
I watched the video per your link and the guy spends several minutes fooling around and then trimming the corners. The guy doing the gallery stretcher video takes less then 2 seconds to fold and slip the folded edge into the stretcher machine.

The Gallery Stretcher video is primarily a sales piece trying to show you how fast you can work once you know what you're doing.  The EZ Stretcher video is more of a "how to" video for someone who hasn't done this before.  It looks WAY slower.  In actual production its probably a bit slower (for 1/3 the price it should be) but not nearly as dramatically as the videos make it seem.

I think the trick is in where you get the creases to fall.  That's what I find helpful in the EZ Stretch video.  That way gets the creases to consistently fall in the same place.  You can apply that methodology in a vastly faster working style than what they show... especially if you don't trim away the under part of the fold as they are showing in the Gallery Stretcher video.

I always coat before stretching as it just gives a bit more protection to the print during all of the handling that it goes through while being mounted.
« Last Edit: February 01, 2009, 02:50:05 pm by Bob Smith »
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Mulis Pictus

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #9 on: February 01, 2009, 03:00:25 pm »

Quote from: Bartone
The other thing - I decided to coat the canvas AFTER I stretched it, and I'm thinking 'mistake'. The coating seems to have relaxed the canvas a bit, so it's not stretched as tight as it was (or is it my imagination?). I'll use the corner wedges to tighten it up, but in the future, I'll try coating it before stretching it.

I did that once in the beginnings as well. I didn't experience any relaxing, but I had problems with uniformity of the coating. So now I only coat before stretching and it works nicely.

enduser

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #10 on: February 02, 2009, 01:52:34 am »

My suggestion is to ask a female friend who is a good dressmaker to show you.  My wife sneered and did a neat corner in a few seconds, then sneered as I took about three days to get close to her neatness.

But I am serious about a dressmaker, they know all about this kind of stuff.
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bill t.

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #11 on: February 02, 2009, 03:08:56 am »

Love the way canvasstretcher drags the stretched canvas face down across the hard surfaced table.  Try folding one of those corners in manual mode with a staple just a few inches away, now that's really fun.

When I was trying to learn that stuff I found it useful to stretch kraft paper until I had it figured out.  Doesn't actually stretch, but helped a lot with the mechanical procedure.  It is somewhat similar to learning to tie one's shoelaces, except without the supple brain of a 4 year old.
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WilliamPatrickMoore

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #12 on: April 05, 2010, 12:46:27 am »

Quote from: Dan Berg
Do you mean what they call a hospital bed corner? Is is proper to have the finished corner mitered rather then flush with the outer edge? I also use Genuine Fractals 6 for the gallery wrap expansion. The dead corners are all white which is part of the problem when you finish with a mitered corner. You have white showing on all the edges.
Dan Berg
Dan, I don't know if you have figured this out yet since your post is a year old but the corners in genuine fractals are actually the color of whatever background color you have chosen in Photoshop. If you have it as black you can turn off the gallery wrap layer in photoshop and have a black border.
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dgberg

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #13 on: April 05, 2010, 05:26:32 am »

Thank you William .
Figured it out some time ago. Even to the point that I teach it now.  
I also change the colors of the corners when needed. The trick for folded corners for me has been trimming the corners to limit the waste material folded under the flap. Makes a thinner much nicer fold without all that unecessary canvas bunched up.
« Last Edit: April 05, 2010, 05:27:17 am by Dan Berg »
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Gemmtech

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #14 on: April 05, 2010, 08:39:08 am »

Didn't anybody here ever learn how to make a bed?  
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JeanMichel

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #15 on: April 05, 2010, 08:49:41 pm »

Hi,
I do not print on canvas but I did watch the Andrew Collett section of the latest LL video journal (LLVJ-19). Mr Collett prints, stretches and mounts fairly large canvas photographs. I found that section of the journal quite interesting and do recommend it to anyone even thinking about someday printing on canvas.

I hope that this helps,

Jean-Michel
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larryg

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #16 on: April 07, 2010, 01:45:38 pm »

I have done some canvas in the past and the bunched up corners (before I started trimming them) was always a big issue.  I used a manual strecher in frame shop.


One question for those doing this.  Do you make your own frames for stretching or do you purchase them?
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dgberg

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #17 on: April 07, 2010, 02:08:18 pm »

Make all frames here at the shop. Takes all the stress out of trying to get a print to match a frame that you pre-purchased. I setup and print the image, then measure the canvas and build the stretcher for that sized canvas. Takes any and all mistakes out of the equation doing it this way.
« Last Edit: April 07, 2010, 02:09:46 pm by Dan Berg »
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BobFisher

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Still fighting folded corners on canvas gallery wraps.
« Reply #18 on: April 12, 2010, 09:43:09 pm »

One thing to keep in mind in that video shown earlier (and yes, I know this discussion is a year + old) is that he said he was doing a museum wrap.  Museum wraps are on the thinner, 3/4" stretchers, are intended to be framed and the corners aren't seen.  It doesn't really matter how pretty the corners are.  Aside from the fancy machine he used, that may be part of the reason why he was able to fold the corners so quickly.  Gallery wraps, on the other hand, are typically on the wider 1 1/2" (or wider) stretchers, are primarily intended to be hung without a frame, the corners are seen and it's more important then that the corners look nice.  My guess would also be that he used mitred corners which are much easier and quicker to do than square corners.

Folding corners isn't that difficult and shouldn't require trimming.  It took me a while to get a method down when I started stretching canvases but now that I've got it, it works well.  What I do is leave the ends of the canvas at the corners unstapled.  Then from the corner, fold the side down at 45 degrees and fold the top flap down flush.  There'll be a lower flap created by folding the side in at 45 degrees and this gets folded under and is hidden by the top flap.  It is like a hospital corner but that's the way it's supposed to be.  You'll see a line of the fold under the top flap but that's fine and is expected.  It doesn't create a bunching of extra fabric under the fold.  It's clean and neat.  With the corner held down I put in 3 staples, one each on the top and side in line with the others and a third at a 45 degree angle across the corner inset a bit from the edge.  It gives flush, square, tight corners.
« Last Edit: April 12, 2010, 09:51:37 pm by BobFisher »
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