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How to Stretch a Canvas. If you’re a starving artist, save a few bucks, hone your carpentry
skills, and stretch your own canvas. You will need 1x2-in. lengths of wood long enough to
form the perimeter of your canvas 1/4-round lengths of trim 1/2 to 5/8-in. carpentry staples
A staple gun Wood glue Finish nails A hammer A miter saw or box saw Raw canvas Medium grit
sandpaper A carpenter's square A damp rag Scissors or a craft knife and a large, wide,
and flat work surface, like a clean floor. Step 1. Decide what size canvas you’d like
to build. Write down the width and height of the canvas. Step 2. Using the miter saw,
cut your 1 by 2-inch wood to size by trimming your lengths of wood at 45 degree angles.
Step 3. Repeat the same process for the ¼-inch, ¼-round trim. Step 4. Sand down the cut surfaces
of your pieces gently and briefly to remove stray bits and particles and provide a good,
even surface. Step 5. Put a dab of glue on the cut faces of two of your 1 by 2-inch pieces
and join them together to form a right angle. Use the carpenter's square to make sure your
joints are square. Step 6. Use the damp rag to mop up any excess glue that pushed out
of the seam at the corner. Step 7. Repeat the process for the other corners. Step 8.
Drive 3 or 4 staples perpendicular to and straddling the seams to fasten the joints
of your canvas together. The product is your stretcher bar. If your stretcher bars are
large, cut angled braces to attach to each corner for support. Step 9. Carefully place
the ¼-inch, ¼-round strips on to the glue so that the slope of the round trim is facing
the inside of the canvas, and the ¼-rounds and 1x2-inch wood are flush on the outside.
Step 10. Carefully tap the finish nails through the ¼-round strips and into the 1x2-inch
parts of the stretcher bars. The ¼-round trim will elevate the canvas off of the stretcher
bars, so that the stretcher bars do not affect the painting. Step 11. Use a nail set or another
nail to push the finish nails below the surface of the wood to prevent it from tearing the
canvas. Step 12. Set the stretcher bars aside to dry for a couple of hours. Step 13. Set
your canvas out flat and face down. Step 14. Set your stretcher bars on top, with the ¼-round
strips in contact with the canvas. Step 15. Beginning with the right side of the stretcher
bars, pull the canvas up in the middle onto the back of the stretcher bars and staple
it down with a staple running parallel to the stretcher bar it's fastened to. Pull firmly.
Step 16. Repeat this on each corner and side. Do not pull so tight that the stretcher bars
bend out of square. At this point, you'll have funny corners sticking up into the air.
Step 17. Pick an area a few inches above your staple and repeat Steps 14 through 16 over
again, moving toward the corners. Step 18. Go to the bottom right corner, pinch the canvas
in your hands and pull the material to one side or the other. Generally you pull toward
the long side of the stretcher bars. Step 19. Fold the material back and around the
stretcher bars as you would when folding and tucking in a sheet on a bed. Step 20. Fasten
the material to the back of the canvas with a couple of staples. Step 21. Repeat Steps
18 through 20 for the opposite corner, then the adjacent corners. Step 22. The back probably
looks a little sloppy, so use scissors or a craft knife to cut away excess canvas. Did
you know The famed Austrian painter Friedensreich Hundertwasser almost always stretched his
own canvas.