Going for a stretch

[tugrik]

Someone forgot to pay the horizon bill today. Instead of the normal view of the Silicon Valley out of my high rise office's windows, there was just this white fade-out that started about a mile away from the parking lot. The news says it was due to the fires in Morgan Hill. Personally I just think that the local world's graphic card burnt out so the developers had to drop the fog distance to near-zero until it can be replaced. Hopefully a new one will be installed tomorrow.

Since my replacement canvas roll came in today (the previous one was the wrong coating type and wouldn't load well) I finally got around to trying a proper stretched-canvas print. I rolled out one of the known test images in 12" x 12" and then followed the "how to stretch your own canvas" guide I'd downloaded to mount it to 12" frame-bars purchased from University Art. While I've got a lot of practice to do, the results still looked great! If I end up selling a lot of these I'm going to need to invest in stretcher pliers and a few other finger-saving devices.

Canvas printing will be a little different; the size selection is far more picky. The image needs to have proper overlap space or, alternatively, 'float' within a white border area. Trying to exactly match a print edge with the analog way canvas stretches over the bars just isn't wise. Either you want overlap or whitespace so that it looks clean. To keep costs down, it'll be best to match roll sizes and standard stretch-bar sizes so I can pre-stock a few types in bulk. Including border trimming and stretching, a 24" roll works beautifully on 20" wide bars with a 20.5" to 21.5" wide image. Then the only real variable is which bars to get for the length, depending on what the client needs.

Due to the amount of labor involved, I'm going to keep actual stretcher-bar mounted image sales limited until I get used to the process. Artists wanting a cheaper option can have me just ship them the canvas print rolled in a tube and stretch it themselves using bars they get or make on their own. After a few more test-prints I'll have a good handle on cost estimation and will add both mounted and unmounted canvasses to the price list.





Anybody got a good 'bulk pricing' stretcher bar vendor to recommend? I'd love to compare it with the suppliers I already have to see if there are cheaper deals out there!

Comments

[herefox.livejournal.com]

Those turned out well. Is there still some canvas texture in them or are they flat-ish now that they've been printed on? (I'm not sure what the appeal of printing on canvas would be otherwise. But then since I'm a painter I'd just, you know, paint on the canvas ;-)

[zeeth_kyrah]

Personally, I'd use the canvas for a more formal, artsy framed print, or to make a poster stand out as really special. I wonder how it wears over time.

[tugrik.livejournal.com]

It's a true canvas, so yes, the texture is there. It's a tight weave so the image resolution is still quite solid. I'll see if I can get a macro shot of the grain soon.

[sassinak.livejournal.com]

Wow! Nice job. Those look great!

[diadexxus.livejournal.com]

Wow! that looks FANTASTIC on the canvas!
-J

[theassassinnox.livejournal.com]

Beautiful!

~S