I just bought a painting unstretched and found out it will cost $80-90 to get it stretched at a local craft store. This seems fairly outrageous. I was expecting somewhere in the $20-30 range.
So I was wondering if anyone has experience stretching their own canvas? I am pretty good with my hands and am considering buying the stretcher bars and trying it myself. Does it take an unusual amount of skill or a special machine to stretch a canvas? Should I just suck it up and pay to have it “professionally” done?
I used to stretch canvasses, needlepoint, etc., for a living and my immediate response is that if you do not have experience with this sort of thing, it could be a problem for you. If the canvas has already been painted on, most of the flexibility of the fabric is gone making it necessary not only to buy the stretcher bars but also a pair of (probably expensive) stretcher pliers. These are a wide jawed plier that really does work, but one needs a lot of hand strength to use it.
I agree that the costs of picture framing and related dealings are way over the top, so if you have alot of self-determination and patience…well maybe. If you have a lot of skill with tools, and are interested I can give you more info on do-it-yourselfing involving the use of regular 2x4s and conventional pliers.
I learned how to stretch an unpainted or jeseoued canvas from a college art student. This is fairly easy but stretching a painted canvas is a whole different story. If you specify than maybe Monalisa9 or I can help.
It depends on how valuable the picture is…if it’s nothing too fancy, you might try doing it with some regular pliers, of course you have to be careful…for cheap, glass cutter pliers might work, they are wide & soft faced. You’d also need a way to attach it to the frame, so a tack gun or something like that.