Saturday, September 19, 2009

Securing oversized stretchers in a frame

Here's a way to secure a big canvas on oversized stretchers into a frame. It is hard to stock offsets in every size and so I fit the big canvases using screw eyes. First I put the canvas into the frame, and with a pencil I draw a line one the side of the stretchers just above the rabbet, like this.

Then with an awl I put holes along that line, several on each side and several on each stretcher side of the canvas .
Then I remove the canvas from the frame and put a screw eye in each of the holes I have made. I turn the screw eyes into the wood using my awl for leverage like so....

Then, after I have placed all of my screw eyes, I put the canvas back in the frame. The screw eyes should sit just on or slightly above the frame, like this.....

Then I put a screw through each of the screw eyes, into the back of the frame.


Here's what each screw eye should look like when it is finished.

Two or three of those on each side of the canvas should hold the painting in its frame. It also looks real slick.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

I am glad you got this entry posted early. You need your beauty sleep so you can get up bright eyed and bushy tailed (whatever the heck that means) for the workshop tomorrow.
So why am I still up?

"reglueto" what you need to do if the first glue didn't stick.

Richard J. Luschek II said...

This is good stuff. I will have to try this instead of bending my own z brackets. Looks much cleaner.

Someone I know that is studying in Florence (Italy, not Kentucky) said that over there they have an eye hook for the top center of the painting, and it is hung a nail. So of course, you can see the nail above the painting. Would be much easier to hang it, and if you had a fancy hanger and nail, it might look nice.

Joe Kazimierczyk said...

I love this idea! Sometimes I feel that offset clips push the face of the painting too hard into the frame and I worry about damage to the edge of the painting (even if it just an 1/8 of an inch). With your idea, you can probably have the painted surface float a hair's width from touching the frame, and still be very secure. I have to try this, thanks!

Philip Koch said...

Stape's photos of using his awl remind me I really should have one in my studio. Maybe what's holding me back is I sometimes get murderous urges toward paintings that fight me too long. Having a sharp awl nearby would mean I have to exercise great self control.

willek said...

Hey, Stape I never thought of this solution. I usually think of everyuthing. I'm nonplussed. Clever.

Stapleton Kearns said...

Deb:
It is worse tonight. I am still awake and blogging.
....................Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Richard:
Or you could one of those little Vienna sausages on the end of the nail to hide it.
................Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Joe;
To do that you need fillet strips in the rabbet of the frame. I am not sure whether that pressure if moderate is a problem.
...........Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Philip:
I slash at them with a razor knife and stomp back and forth. The awl lives in the basement.
.................Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Willek:
I would never have THOUGHT of it. I learned it from paintings from the depression when I suppose screw eyes were easy to come by and offsets were expensive and specialized hardware from the big city.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Stape