The Framers Forum

Hi Everyone,

Another novice question here, so bear with me...

A textile artist has requested that I make her some frames that her fabric works can be wrapped tightly around.

Silly question, but would you just use stretcher bars in the way you would with a canvas?

Not having had much experience with stretcher bars since the hour or two training I had a year ago, I made a couple of options up - one made from normal mouldings and another by making a frame structure using fillets. Problem is, both options were too flimsy.

Now, I could certainly use a thicker fillet than I had (the one I used was too slim tbh - 5x12mm). Would this be satisfactory in your eyes? Or must it be with stretcher bars to do the right job?

How big is the fabric, does it need to be stretched taut, and will it then be going into a frame?

Hi Jim. The sizes I've had so far are around 500 x 300mm, and thereabouts. She's also stated that future works will be even larger.

She does want them taut, yes, but I don't think she's planning on having them framed afterwards. It seems she wants to exhibit them as they are.

Not knowing the actual fibers that they are using or the climate control of where they will be displayed, adjustable stretchers would be the gest option.
You might also consider sealing the wood with appropriate modern varnishes preferrable conservation grades.

Fabric and canvas are very different! I had an artist who wanted her "canvas" stretched. She'd bought a 100m roll of it in India, chosen it herself, but the stretch in it was unbelievable. I turned the job down. I heard that the framer who took it on had to restretch it twice more before it was stable.
If there's no stretch in the fabric and she is doing the stretching you could buy some length of strainer bar like Lions L2459 but there'll be no tightening possible later, that's the cheapest option, or you can by stretcher bars of specific sizes from Lions too, but she'd have to work to the sizes available, or you're looking at someone like Bird and Davis who supply made to measure stretcher bars but they are much more costly.

Ah, Justin is touching on a question I should have asked earlier...how do you form custom sizes with stretcher bars?

My understanding of them is that they come in standard sizes and then just fit together. I was of the belief (wrongly?) that it's not so normal to chop them, because of the slots at the ends for putting them together. This was part of my reasoning for using mouldings or fillets that I could chop to the specification.

There seems to be some stretch in the fabric, mainly using the edges that haven't been stitched.

Mainline have a great system, watch the videos in this link then search their website for “Allsize” to see the range.

You can even connect offcuts to drastically reduce wastage.


https://mainlinemouldings.com/allsize-s ... -moulding/




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Now THIS looks like it could it do the job, especially in terms of allowing for custom sizes.

JKX wrote: ↑Thu 17 Apr, 2025 4:40 pm Mainline have a great system, watch the videos in this link then search their website for “Allsize” to see the range.

You can even connect offcuts to drastically reduce wastage.


https://mainlinemouldings.com/allsize-s ... -moulding/




..

I used to modify the "standard" adjustable bars by adding wood shims/slats to the outer edges of the bars. The shims would have the proud corner sanded a bit to protect the canvas. There was a limit to the the width of the shims where all 4 sides had to have shims. These shims were mostly higher than the built in original lips.