Stretching canvases with inadequate borders

[Not your average framer]

I don't know why people do this, but from time to time, someone will bring in a canvas which has been previously stretched, but then the width of the border which was obviously sufficient for stretching with stretcher pliers gets cut away so that no one can ever adequately tension it again using stretcher pliers.

The trouble is that people go on holiday and buy these canvases, but in order to make it easier to bring the canvas home, the retailer then offers to remove the canvas from the stretcher bars, even though there is not enough canvas left to be able to adequately tension the canvas with stretcher pliers. (thanks a bunch!)

As a result, I have often wondered if anyone has a solution to stretching canvases where some joker has decided not to leave a big enough border to permit the canvas to be stretched onto a new stretcher framer.

[IFGL]

It is a PITA, I do what you probably do, pull as best as I can by hand then knock the corner wedges in.

For anyone who may not have done these before, a good percentage of them can't really be pulled taught any way, due to them being painted on a old bit of bed sheet with what looks like emulation wall paint and the most brittle varnish known to man, look at them too hard and they will crack, roll em they will crack, fart in the general area of them and they will crack.

[Graysalchemy]

9 times out of 10 they are not square either. , and the client wants them on a deep canvas. You just have to show how much is going to be lost through stretching. Either that or board mount it .

[Dave]

I always explain the issues to the customer before agreeing to the job. The profit in doing a job like this isn't worth a dissapointed customer.

Dave

[markw]

If its valuable it needs to be professionally lined to provide enough spare canvas to stretch - If its the cheapo stuff thats painted in house paint on a bed sheet then dry mounting can be an effective way of making it frameable.

[pichousepreston]

I either use thin wide stretchers or explain that the image will have to go around the edges as well, most customers don't mind that.

[kevin]

I cut 4 strips[60mm wide] of a canvas roll. Take the lot to a local cobbler who sews the canvas strips onto the artist's canvas. Stretches fine

[benjiman grapes]

We usually talk the customer through various options. We offer 3 levels of stretch, budget, a fixed stretch (canvas stretcher moulding but pinned) and premier stretch (bars with wedges). Budget is usually a shallow moulding that we pop 3mm mdf in the back to prevent bowing. If (as in the case menioned here) there isn't enough excess for stretching then we ask if the customer wants an external frame. This allows for pinning down the side which the frame hides. When the excess really is in short supply we talk about drymounting, squaring off then framing as normal. I must add the options we offer are usually dictated by customers budget and the value of the canvas. Have been known to float mount the canvas' before.

[prospero]

On a side note. I get very miffed when I watch (usually older) movies where someone steals a priceless painting by cutting it out of the frame. What about the bit under the rebate? It may be only 1/4" wide, but that's a 1/4" of genuine Rembrandt or whoever. The thief is slicing £10000s off. And the restoration costs don't bear thinking about. I can just imagine him trying to sell it to a rich but bent collector. "I'm not buying that! You have knackered it!".
In one movie the Mona Lisa got nicked in that fashion. Rolled up and spirited away..... Which would take some doing as it's painted on board.

[Howard]

Some German bloke came into my workshop with ' The Madonna with the big boobies ' I said 'allo allo' I'm not touching that.

[prospero]

My case in a nutshell. Concealing a valuable painting in a sausage is likely to reduce it's value considerably and incur enormous restoration expenses. same with stuffing it down your trousers on a regular basis.

[Graysalchemy]

Was it not the case that many old masters were never painted on canvases in the first place but on wooden panels. These were then skillfully removed by making a veneer and attached to a canvas and stretched in latter years.

[prospero]

I was watching Spooks last night. A Russian guy had a Rubens painting that he acquired through nefarious means and M15 nicked it off him so they could blackmail him. Cut it out of the frame with a Stanley knife. Haven't the security services heard of long-nosey pliers? What's more they rolled it up. What's even worse the back of the canvas looked brand new.