Canvas Stretching 101

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Want to stretch your own canvas? Learn the basics with this quick tutorial.

[Terrysmithstudios]

It's great that you're trying to help people, but absolutely do not put staples across the corner seams. It prevents the canvas from being stretched using wooden keys and goes against the whole point of using stretcher bars. Spraying water on the back as shown in the video does very, very little, and the canvas will still become loose over time. On a larger canvas it will do nothing. After the canvas is stretched put wooden keys in the corners and lightly tap all of them in. If tapping the corner keys in expanded the joint then you didn't stretch the canvas tight enough. Take the staples out and start over. (It's not fun, but you'll learn as did I.) Instead of spraying water on the back, gesso the surface to tighten it up further. Your canvas should be tight as a drum after the gesso dries. If it's a raw canvas you will need more than one coat. The first coat should be wetter to soak deeper into the threads. Read the instructions on the can.

[PhilipBoelter]

Great tutorial! I've always wanted to learn how to do this, and now I'll have to give it a shot.

[PKnese]

I never staple the stretcher bars together... If you do, using stretcher keys won't make the canvas tight!

[stickerchicago]

First, thanks for being a great art supply store. But I have two OK, Three. One, maybe show people how much extra canvas is needed to properly wrap the frame. Two, The newer frames sold here in Chicago, the joints are milled terribly and have a hard time fitting together without sanding them down. The old brand was way better. I'm sure that was a corporate move to buy a cheaper product to make a better profit or to cover the cost of the material sitting on hand for longer than other products. Understandable, but product quality control should be on this to fix the problem. Third, You should go into more details about how to wrap corners. That's a hard thing to conquer for beginners and novice. -GG

[PrincessCadence]

OR you could just buy the ones blick already sells and save your self a lot of agony

[karenowen]

Cool, thanks for making this; next time maybe just a little slower would be helpful.

[michaelgray]

In college, we hade to make our own stretcher bars