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  1. Home
  2. Canvas
  3. Stretcher Bars

Stretcher Bars

Sometimes you cannot find the right size pre-stretched canvas, so what to do? Make your own canvas to paint on of course.
Many artists sometimes feel that making their own canvas is the first step of any painting, the first step of the creative process. Some will even say that they must make their own stretcher bars as well.
Well, without going that far, which requires more tools and time than many may have, one can start with these professional manufactured stretcher bars.
We feature Best heavy and medium duty and lightweight bars, as well as Fredrix brand lightweight bars... all at discounted prices!

  • Best Lightweight Stretcher Bars
    BEST lightweight stretcher bars are extremely useful in small paintings. These bars can save you money and make framing easier; perfect for beginners, college students, and small works of art. Slightly heavier then the Fredrix lightweight bars.
    Best Lightweight Stretcher Bars
  • Best Medium Duty Stretcher Bars
    Medium Duty Stretcher Bar for medium size stretched canvas. 24 x 30 and up.
    Best Medium Duty Stretcher Bars
  • Best Medium Duty Cross Braces
    Best Cross Braces are made of kiln-dried, knot free pine, and have a 13/16" profile and measure 1-3/4" wide and designed to brace the backside of your stretched canvas.
    Best Medium Duty Cross Braces
  • Best Heavy Duty Stretcher Bars
    This Super Bar is made of pine that has been finger spliced. Finger splicing is a method of bonding pieces of lumber together to form a very long straight bar. The spliced joints are actually stronger than the natural wood.
    Best Heavy Duty Stretcher Bars
  • Best Heavy Duty Cross Braces
    Heavy duty cross braces for Best Heavy Duty Stretcher Bars
    Best Heavy Duty Cross Braces
  • Canvas Corner Keys and Braces
    BEST Wooden Canvas Corner Keys for tightening up and holding tension on stretched canvas'
    Canvas Corner Keys and Braces
  • Canvas Pliers
    Canvas pliers are essential for a good stretch. These are strong and durable.
    Canvas Pliers
  • Best Aluminum Heavy Duty Stretcher Bars
    The BEST Aluminum HD Stretcher Bar offers strength, stability, long length capability, and a larger stapling area
    Best Aluminum Heavy Duty Stretcher Bars

Stretch Your Own Canvas in 4 Easy Steps

Stretching canvas does more than stretch your budget—you can customize your canvas to practically any size or shape you choose! In a few easy-to-master steps, you can save money and exercise your creativity before you ever even put paint to canvas. Before you stretch your own, you should have ready-to-go stretcher bars in the size you want. If you haven't made your own stretcher bars before, check out this great tutorial from www.emptyeasel.com. You can also buy pre-made frames, if you're not anxious to use a saw. (But we have yet to meet an artist that doesn't like to play with toys...er, we mean, tools!) You need three main items before you start: a roll of unprimed canvas, a staple gun, and a pair of scissors. Make sure the canvas you have is unprimed—you'll prime it once it's stretched. (We'll talk about priming your canvas in our next ArtTips email, so stay tuned!)

Step One: Measure the canvas to fit your stretchers
This can be as exact or inexact as you want. The important thing to remember is to make sure you have enough material to wrap over the edges of the frame in order to secure it. You can almost cut this like you would wrapping paper for a present: place the frame face down on the canvas, fold the edges to make sure you have enough overlap, and use your scissors to cut the canvas to shape. See? Easy!

Step Two: Staple the canvas to the frame
It's important to secure your canvas without any ripples or wrinkles, and the best way to start is by wrapping the canvas over one of the longer edges of the stretcher bar frame. Staple the canvas as close to the center of that side as possible.

Step Three: Time to stretch!
Now, turn the frame around to the other long side. For best results, you always want to work across from your last staple when stretching a canvas. Grab the canvas directly across from your first staple with the thumb and forefinger of both hands, and use your other fingers on the frame for support. (Some people use clamps or pliers to hold and pull the canvas, but you can use your fingers, too.) Pull the canvas towards you and wrap it around the frame, keeping it as tight as possible. Hold the canvas tight against the frame with one hand, and staple it with the other. You should now have two staples on opposite sides from one another, with the canvas pulled nice and tight in between.

Follow the same steps for the short sides of the canvas frame: pull the canvas tight onto one side and staple in the center. Pull it tight on the opposite and staple. If you've done this correctly, your fingers will probably be a bit tired, and only the center of your canvas will be tight, so you need to tighten up the rest. Go back to your first staple and choose a spot about 2-3 inches to the right. Grab the canvas, pull it, and staple it as described above. Then, move to a spot about 2-3 inches to the left of your first staple, and do the same thing. You'll have three staples securing your canvas on the first edge of the frame. Do this again on the opposite side of the frame, and then on the short sides of the frame. Keep this pattern up by moving to each side of the canvas and placing a staple to the right and left of the others.

Note: Once the staples get close to the corners on the short sides, stop and only staple the canvas on the longer sides until the last staples are all approximately the same distance from the corners. You're almost done!

Step Four: Now for the corners
The key to a good stretched canvas is crisp, tight corners (just like a well-wrapped present!). To get a good corner, pinch both sides of the material together so that you have a nice sharp fold that aligns perfectly with the corner, then carefully fold the material around one side of the frame, making sure to pull it tight, and secure it with a staple. If you have done it correctly, the fold will be a 45-degree angle on one side of the frame, with no material on the other side, as shown in the image here. Do this for the other three corners, and you are done! Now, all you need to do is prime the canvas, which we will discuss next week. If your first one isn't as perfect as you want it to be, just pop the staples out and try again. Over time, practice will make you better, and save you a ton of money that you can use for paint instead! Happy stretching, artists.

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