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Creating own canvases
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Message
Posted
It'd be cheaper if you can actually DO it, yes: but the reason people pay the extra price is that it's not that easy - at least it's not easy for me, but then I'm like a cow with a musket when it comes to any form of assembly.
There are one or two guides on YouTube which might help; there are books just devoted to this, and sections of others. And there's Jackson's - who won't only sell you stretcher bars and canvas on a roll, but (you may need to get them to ring you back when they've unearthed their resident expert) will, I'm told, give advice over the 'phone. There are also more specialist suppliers - I'm having one of my forgetful days, so can't remember the companies' names off hand, but a search on that friend of the senile, Google, will take you to them; and they advertise now and then in Leisure Painter and The Artist magazines.
You can make your own frames, too! If you start to, and begin a cottage industry, let me know - I'm no good at cutting a mitre, either.... (it may help if I explain that at school it took me a whole term to make a tent-peg: they just gave up on me in the end).
Posted
Well, I make most of my own frames being lucky enough to have access to a professional MORSO guillotine and underpinner etc, It works out at a fraction of the cost. However, that is not the question. Yes, it is relatively easy to construct your own canvas supports, as Robert has pointed out, stretcher bars can be bought and the canvas comes in varying qualities but it won't generally be primed so do keep that in mind. (I expect that some will be primed nowadays).
It does make life a lot easier if you have canvas stretching pliers, you can buy them online, then either use tacks or staples to attach the canvas to the stretcher bars. I don't make them up myself these days but it really is fairly straightforward and you will pick it up in no time. It should work out cheaper than a bespoke job but not necessarily.
Posted
MDF is a consideration too..... I want to try the canvas making.....
I want to a very big piece... remember the David Hockney inspired thread? Well that on a either a big canvas or MDF.
I have looked to buy one and its expensive.....plus I need to explain the cost to my long haired general too...
Posted
That makes more sense Peter to use Gesso rather than glue, I will check out H-J's article later today hopefully.
Tony, I don't recall the Hockney thread but when I went to see his exhibition at the RA in 2006 'A Bigger Picture', there were some huge works (as the title would suggest). Many of his canvases were 40 x 48in and were in multiple rows all joined to give the impression of one huge canvas. That's how HE tackled the big canvas issue.
Jackson's do stock this size of stretched canvas, I've bought quite a few of them over the years and they weren't too expensive for a quality branded make.
Edited
by alanbickley
Posted
PVA glue is widely used - the only reason I wouldn't recommend it is that I've never tried it; in theory at least it should present no problems.
Acrylic "gesso" is a white priming paint, and like all acrylics it will act as a glue (as you discover if you splash some on your clothes and don't notice it until it's dried). I wish manufacturers wouldn't call it gesso, because it isn't, and it can get very confusing when trying to answer people's questions about it.
Whether PVA is the same as as gesso - well no, I don't think it is, but there are similarities in structure; you have to be wary with the white stuff that you're not applying it to a surface which is in any way greasy: but provided you're applying it to a dry, grease-free substrate, either brushing it through muslin or applying it directly to, say, MDF, it'll give you tooth: and there are all sorts of materials you can mix with it to provide more tooth, though I agree with Marjorie that if you apply it with strong directional brush-strokes, or even with a sponge-roller, it can give you all the tooth you need.
Or you can brush acrylic medium - transparent or otherwise - directly to your board or canvas, and even use it as a glue: it'll work out more expensive than PVA, but on the other hand it may give you that bit more reassurance that you've used an archival product. A long, lingering, lustful look at all the surface paints and preparations and media on Jackson's, Grantham's, or Ken Bromley's websites will provide much more information.
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