and Bespoke Picture Framing
© Just Paintings 2012
Send an
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you frame tapestries (or cross stitch pictures)?
Yes. There are 3 ways to stretch these pictures.
1. Most framers use a very sticky double sided tape on the back of a piece of mountboard that has been cut to the image size. By folding and sticking the first side down and then bending the mountboard slightly as you fix the opposite side. This is repeated for the other 2 sides. When finished the image package is very buckled. A frame, glass and backboard are then cut to the size of the “stretched” image. When assembled the backboard will flatten the “stretched” image against the glass. This is a very quick method and does not do a very good job of keeping the image straight and square. Also the image should not touch the glass.
2. The method used by needlepoint purists is to have a board that oversize and then the canvas is hand stitched up and down every couple of centimetres and hand stitched across as well. This method is very time consuming and uses lots of thread (ordinary cotton thread is not strong enough). It is also difficult to make it straight and square. We are happy to do this for any customer, but remember we will be charging for our time.
3. Our preferred method is to stretch the canvas flat across an over size piece of plywood with a thick acid free barrier paper between the plywood and the canvas. We then staple the image to the board whilst under tension. This is continually adjusted until the canvas is perfectly straight and square. A tapestry of about 20”x16” will have about 400 staples used, but about only 100 remain when the canvas has been stretched. The canvas then has a mount fitted to cover all the staples and this creates the necessary air gap for long term protection.
I bought an oil painting on canvas whilst on holiday abroad, can you stretch it and frame it?
Yes. The easiest canvases to stretch are those that have never been stretched. If a canvas has been removed from a stretcher rail, the first thing we need to know is how much canvas is there outside the image. It is best if the canvas has about 2” of spare canvas all round the image. If it is less than that it has been trimmed, and makes restretching more difficult. We have to make a new wedged stretcher rail to the required dimension (rarely are they a standard size) or we will use a fixed rail. The wedge rail is best as the canvas can be retensioned if it sags over time.
Some canvases are intended to have no frame, these are called gallery stretched. With these there are no staples or tacks showing on the side of the stretcher rail, everything is on the back. These are more difficult to stretch, but we do stock a deep profile stretcher rail for gallery stretching.
I have a pastel to frame, is there anything that must be done for it’s long term protection?
It does not matter whether the pastel has been fixed by the artist or not, glass has a static energy to it and will lift pastel dust off the image if there is less than a 8mm air gap between the glass and pastel.
There are several ways to achieve this. The mount can be floated off the pastel by packing the back with strips of scrap mountboard. The best way is to have a top mount over a bevelled 5mm foam core board that has the edge wrapped with a decorative tape - we stock over 20 colours.