The Framers Forum

When framing a canvas print, stretched over 18mm bars, which is to be glazed :-
1. Is it conventional to place a slip between the glass and the artwork ?
2. Given that the package is going to be possibly somewhere in the region of 30mm deep, shouldn't the rebate in the frame be correspondingly deep to accommodate it ?

I have been told that a frame profile with a 12-15mm deep rebate is fine, and it is normal to be able to see the edge of the canvas wrap, at the back of the frame, when viewed from the side.
3. Is this correct

TIA
Jack

Depends on the width of the moulding. If the canvas protrudes 15mm and the frame is 3" wide, then you need to be at a very acute angle to see the side of the canvas. But if the frame is an inch wide it's going to be very noticeable.

Also, if you are going to glaze the canvas, it follows that it ought to have a back on it as well. So you need to extend the back of the frame with a piece of timber - about 18mm thick in this case. Don't have to cover the entire back of the frame. A 1" strip on a 3" frame is fine. You can black the side of the extension and it will virtually disappear.

If the frame is narrow, this is not quite so easy. Better in this case to try to use a frame with a deep enough rebate to swallow the whole package.

Various ways of spacing the glass away....

Put in a 'blind' spacer tucked under the rebate. Can be layers of scrap mountboard sliced to the same width. Blackcore is nice as it doesn't show.

Use a slip (most off-the-shelf slips are gold/silver)

Use a rebated narrow moulding as a liner under the glass. Mind you pick one with enough width on the rebate lip. canvases can be irregular around the edges and they also need a bit of elbow room.

Thank you.
I understand the principle now, which it appears, from what you've said, to be more the issue; rather than a hard-&-fast-rule.

..... you need to extend the back of the frame with a piece of timber

Peter, would this extension be fixed to the back of the frame, or to the edge of the stretcher bars ?

To the back of the frame.

Thank you. Once more Appreciated

.... canvases can be irregular around the edges and they also need a bit of elbow room

How much room, Peter?
Given that a print will have 2mm between the package & the rebate, how much clearance should I allow for canvas on bars ?
Thanks

Bigger the canvas, the more room. Canvases sometimes go slack after a while and need the corner wedges knocking in a bit. Simple to do, but the canvas can grow a bit in this process. If the canvas was already tight in the frame then it won't go back in. Most of the time this never happens though, but it's worth bearing in mind.

Most canvases are fairly square if they are factory-produced (or you stretched them yourself) but sometimes artists prepare their own and they can be way off square. Sometimes the corners can be very lumpy. Sometimes you can nibble the frame corners with a Dremel to accommodate the bunchy corners.

The main thing is, as canvas should not be tight in a frame. It should always have space around it. On a biggish canvas (36"+), I like to see a 3mm gap all round.

Thank you. I've got 6 at the moment which I have stretched (22" x 16" max) and another two, the same sort of size coming in on Monday.
All new so have not been wedged. They've been checked, and are deemed sufficiently taut
I must admit that I had not considered that a canvas could be tightened and go back in the same frame: I assumed a new frame.
I'll allow 4mm when I do them next week: each of the frame profiles have adequate rebate width to accommodate that.

I'm in your debt again
I'll be buying all of the evening's beer, if I ever visit Lincoln