Materials Needed

·Fredrix® Unprimed Linen Canvas

·Fredrix® Glue Sizing (stock# 4403)

·Fredrix® Titanium Oil Priming (stock# 4402) or Gesso Ground (#4412) plus linseed oil

·Fine Grit Sandpaper

·Duel Filter Respirator

·Mineral Spirits

Sizing: Animal Hide Glue

1. Stir 1 oz. glue into 12 fluid oz. of water.  Heat mixture in a double boiler to a temperature of about 160o F until thoroughly dissolved.  Do not boil or overheat.

2. Apply as a liquid with a brush or palette knife into weave of the canvas from the center outward, then sides, then overlap on the backside, covering the staples and cut canvas edges. Sizing should penetrate into the fibers of the canvas.  A thin solution is preferable rather than a thick coating that would stiffen the canvas and obscure the texture.

3. Let canvas dry.  Then sand with fine sandpaper.

4. Canvas will tighten during sizing and will relax slightly when dry.  Re-stretch or peg out before priming if sagging is excessive.

Ground: Oil Priming (titanium) or Gesso Ground in linseed oil

5. Apply the Oil Priming (titanium) or Gesso Ground/linseed oil mixture as in Step #1, PRIMING CANVAS WITH ACRYLIC GESSO. (See label directions for preparing the Gesso Ground/linseed oil mixture.) Clean up with mineral spirits.

6. Let dry completely. Lightly sand with fine grit sandpaper.

*Use respirator while sanding and cleaning.  Avoid contact with skin.

Materials Needed

· Fredrix® Acrylic Gesso
· Fine Grit Sandpaper
· Fredrix® Unprimed Cotton or Linen Canvas
· Brush, Paint Pad, Squeegee or Painting Knife

Thinning:

· If a thinner gesso is desired, it may be thinned with up to 25% water without adversely affecting performance.
·  For increased adhesion and flexibility then with equal parts water and acrylic matte medium.
·  Diluting for brush or roller application is not necessary.

Single vs. Multiple Coats:

For cotton duck canvas, one layer of gesso may be adequate, but pinholes or uncovered areas may occur.  Two coats are recommended.  A second layer evens out and produces a smoother surface.  Three coats results in even less texture. Two layers are recommended if oil paint is to be used over acrylic gesso.

Application:

1. Using a half-circular motion, apply gesso with a large gesso brush, painting knife, squeegee or house paint pad to stretched unprimed canvas.  Brush gesso into weave of the canvas from center –outward- then sides – then overlap on the backside, covering the staples and cut canvas edges.  Clean up with warm water.

2. Let dry, Canvas will tighten during gessoing, and will relax slightly when fully dry.

3. Lightly sand with fine grit sandpaper.  Apply second layer. Let dry.

4. Repeat light sanding.  Let dry 24 hours before painting.

Sagging and Wrinkles after Gessoing

5. If small ripples or indentations occur, dampen the affected area with a damp sponge (do not saturate).  Let dry n a well-ventilated area. 

6. Large wrinkles should be removed by using canvas pliers and re-stretching the affected area, or the entire canvas if necessary.

*Avoid using pegs (keys) to take out wrinkles of unprimed stretched canvas.  It may throw frame out of square or damage canvas.  Remove staples or tacks in affected area and re-stretch the wrinkled portion.  Pegs are used to tighten slightly sagging canvas after it has been sized, gessoed or painted.

Materials Needed:

· Fredrix® Primed or Unprimed cotton or linen canvas

· Fredrix® Canvas Pliers

· Ruler

· Heavy Duty Staple Gun or Magnetic-Head Track Hammer

·  3/8” Stainless steel Heavy Duty Staples or Copper Tacks

· Fredrix® Stretcher Strips: 2 equal horizontal & 2 equal vertical sizes

1.)   Assemble frame by fitting together tongue and groove ends of stretcher strips.  Check the squareness of the frame by measuring across the diagonal corners so that both are equal.  Attach cross bracing if needed.

2.)   Cut canvas 4” longer on all four sides than assemble stretcher frame. Center the canvas face down, on a clean flat surface.  Align stretcher frame with the vertical and horizontal weave of the canvas.

3.)   Fold one side of the canvas over the longer stretcher strip and drive a staple into the center of the back of the stretcher strip (for clean edge), flush with wood.

4.)   Go to the opposite side.  Grip canvas with canvas pliers (with left hand for right handed person) and stretch tight, until a straight crease is formed running across the canvas.  Maintain tension and drive staple (with right hand for right handed person) into the center of back of stretcher strip, flush with wood.  If staples are not flush with wood, maintain tension with pliers and hammer staple until flush with wood.  Do not overstretch.  (Unprimed canvas may go out of alignment or damage stretcher frame when canvas shrinks during priming.)

5.)   Stretch and attach canvas to the centers of adjacent stretcher strips in the same manner: Canvas will now have a diamond shaped wrinkle.

6.)   Drive in staples every 1 ½”-2”, moving outward from the center, alternately switching to opposite sides.  Drive in one staple to the left and right of center, then go to the opposite side and repeat.  Then go to adjacent sides and repeat.  Work from the center toward the corners.  Pull tightly; using canvas pliers, but not so much that it will wrinkle canvas between staples.  First pull tightly towards you, then with other hand pull at right angle, towards corner, for an even stretch in both directions, then staple.

7.)   Stop 3” from the corners.  For rectangular stretcher frames, adjust stapling so that you arrive 3” from each corner at the same time.  Double fold canvas at corners, so that final fold lines up with edge and staple through folded canvas into back of frame while exerting finger tension.

8.)   Fold the excess canvas to the back of the frame and staple or tack to allow for remounting in the future.  If the canvas is trimmed flush with the frame, remounting to same size is more difficult.

How to choose a canvas

Linen vs. Cotton

Linen should be selected when the artist:
-Desires the highest archival quality and highest perceived value
-Can afford the expense of linen
-Needs artwork to have the added perceived value of linen.

Raw vs. Pre-Primed

Raw Canvas is selected when the artist:
- Needs total control of stretching and priming
-Has the time, technical ability and expertise to stretch and personally prime the canvas.

Size of Painting

The larger the size of the painting the heavier the weight of canvas needed.
-10 oz. and 12 oz. cotton is recommended for canvas sizes 48” and larger
-10 oz. linen is recommended for canvas sizes 48” and larger

Oil or Acrylic Paint

-Oil paint may be painted on canvas primed with oil ground, or acrylic ground.
-Acrylic paint may only be painted on canvas primed with acrylic ground or acrylic gesso.
-Oil and acrylic paint may be painted on both linen and cotton canvases.

Linen Canvas
Linen is usually the preferred fabric of painters.  It offers the artist the most permanency, strength and beauty of any canvas material. 

Cotton Canvas
Cotton is the most popular artist grade canvas fabric.  Cotton fibers stretch more than linen, allowing for a tighter mounted canvas with less straining.  A as stretched canvas size increases, the weight of the cotton canvas should increase to make up for what it is lacking in fiber strength. 

Synthetic Canvas (Fredrix Polyflax®)
Synthetic canvas is often woven using yarns extruded into continuous filaments.  It is less sensitive to dimensional change from weather and immune to bacteria, mildew and air pollutants. 

Fredrix® Print Canvas
Fredrix manufactures a full range of canvas that you can print on.  This printable canvas is similar to artist canvas, but has an ink-receptive topcoat.

Canvas is a term applied to tightly woven fabrics, usually cotton or linen that are used for sails, tents, awnings and paintings.  The archival necessity of paintings dictate that canvas used for painting be of the highest quality materials.  Canvas comes in a wide variety of textures, qualities and dimensions.  It can be chosen for a specific effect desired in a given painting such as: extra smooth surface for detailed portraiture, a bold texture for impasto, or an abrasive “toothy” surface to enhance adhesion for collage.

In general, artwork should be hung so that the center point of the picture or grouping is at about eye level for the average person. While this won't be possible in every situation, it's a good guideline to keep in mind.

Another technique to remember is that a grouping of pictures should be thought of as one unit. Test an arrangement of pictures by laying everything out on a large table (or on the floor), playing with combinations until you hit upon one that works. Laying them out on paper is even better since you'll be able to trace around each object and determine where picture hangers should be installed. Tape the paper up on the wall as a template for picture hangers and you'll be done in no time.

You can also lay out pieces of scrap molding (or tape) onto the floor to form the "outside" bundaries of a picture grouping -- the measurements within which the smaller pieces of art will be set. This is useful when a particular wall has certain boundaries that must be observed (such as a chair rail, windows, heating vents, and the like) and helps keep your arrangement the proper size.

Relate Art to Wall Size
Choose smaller pictures for narrow walls and larger works for big wall spaces. Here a hall wall is accented by hanging a set of six prints in a tall vertical arrangement. One or two larger vertical pictures would have been another possibility for this space.

Relate Art to Furniture Size
In general, when hanging art over a piece of furniture it should not be longer than the width of the furniture.

A rabbet is the recess on the back inside edge of the frame into which the artwork fits.  "Rabbet size" refers to the depth of this recess. Because our ready-made frames (and custom-made frames) have open rabbets (see diagram), they will work for almost any framing project.