Canvas Giclee Art Reproduction Stretcher Bars

Video Transcript

"Hi , I'm JK Dooley and I am a professional artist and were going to talk a little bit now about stretching canvas. Some tools that you need, you need stretcher bars and you can purchase these at most art stores will have them or you can actually make them yourself. You are going to go ahead and assemble these. They come notched like this. You assemble them to the size. You purchase the size of the finished piece. So, as an example if your piece is going to be 12 by 16 then you need two twelve’s and two sixteen’s. You go ahead and put these together. You will need a rubber mallet. I use a hammer and just a towel and I lay that over when I tap on the wood because you don't want to dent the wood. You will also need a little bit of sandpaper because you are going to want to sand down the corners just a little bit because they can be a little sharp. You will need a staple gun. I use this particular model, where you push down in front because it is a lot more comfortable for me to use. They also have electric staple guns and those are even easier to use. You will also need these. Typically stores will just give you these along with the stretcher bars. When it's all said and done, this is what it will look like. A larger piece will require a crossbar around the back as well. But, this piece isn't big enough to need that. So, you start with these and this is what you end up with."