SBedsaul
Posts: 146
Joined: 1/1/2006
Status: offline
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Joe, I sympathize. There's misplaced paint on just about everything I own. There's two kinds of things you can stretch on, these days. You've got the usual stretcher bars, that are awful and usually warp or there are strainer bars that you can get through your local frame shop or frame distributor. I discovered strainer bars because, well, I work in a frame shop. I much prefer them. They're better quality woods and you can have them cut to whatever size you want. They can be joined for you or you can get a corner clamp and do it yourself. I cross nail mine and they do not come apart. Many distributors will sell to individual artists if you have a tax number, which will save you a fortune. Strainer bars come in a variety of thicknesses, from the usual 3/4" to 3". I stretch my own canvases and find I can get a tighter stretch than commercial canvases. I use #10 weight cotton duck, put a couple of coats of gesso on it and that tightens it even more. Galleries have even come up with terminology for the side issues you brought up. Standard is side stapled and unpainted. Gallery wrap is no side staples and painted a solid color. Museum wrap is no side staples and the painting continues on the side. The gallery I work for, the main focus is art and the framing secondary. Many artists are going the gallery/museum wrap path. Used to be you couldn't show your work without a frame. This change in thinking has been a life saver for artists and I don't think it lessens the quality of the gallery. In fact, a lot of customers prefer it. I've heard too many times..."Love the painting, hate the frame" and they walk away. This way an outstanding sales person such as myself, can easily show them different options and seal the deal. As for shipping, the shipping costs are often less than what it would cost the consumer to take the canvas in for stretching. I'd be nervous about painting on unstretched canvas. I've had some disasters with stretching canvas that have not been previously stretched, such as cracking paint or not being able to remove a "wrinkle/ warp" in the fabric. The canvas itself can have inconsistencies that are corrected in the stretching. Hope I helped.
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