Linda teaches art: Make it or Buy it

Canvas stretcher: Make it or Buy it?

My art school taught me how to build my own stretchers by hand from standard lumber-yard materials. If yours didn't, I think you got ripped off. I'm not saying that making stretchers is easy, and I understand that painters aren't necessarily carpenters. But if you're even moderately handy, you can build a much better stretcher than any store-bought readymade. You can build stretchers cheaper and stronger, and you can build them to exactly the dimensions you want.

What is a canvas stretcher?

A canvas stretcher is a wooden frame inside a painting on canvas. Like an embroidery hoop, it holds the canvas taut. The canvas is stretched across and around a stretcher, and tacked or stapled to the back. Once a painting has been framed, you can't see the stretcher, but it's a permanent part of the artwork. The painted canvas is only removed from the stretcher for short-term storage, travel, or repair.

If you're an art lover, that's background information. If you're a painter, that's a fundamental piece of equipment.

You can buy stretched canvas

Every art supply store stocks ready-made stretched canvases. They're commercially manufactured and assembled with primed canvas.

Cheaper stretched canvases are made with lighter wood, thinner members, and cheaper canvas. Cheaper stretched canvases have the canvas stapled on the sides (rather than on the back) to use less canvas.

Expensive stretched canvases should be stronger. You'll pay more for thicker stretchers, cross-bars, and/or corner braces. You'll pay more for stretchers milled to create an especially deep drop from the outside edge, and consider yourself lucky to find them. You'll pay more for hardwood stretchers, and it's worth it for big paintings. You'll pay more for linen (rather than cotton) canvas.

Prices and availability vary hugely, but I can give you some ballpark figures. At the time of this writing (February 2006), a 16-inch by 20-inch stretched canvas, cotton on a regular 7/8 inch deep stretcher, primed with acrylic gesso, retails for $5 to $12 CDN. A 16-inch by 20-inch stretched stretched canvas, cotton on a gallery-depth 1 and 3/4 inch deep basswood stretcher, primed with acrylic gesso, retails for $12 to $25 CDN. A 16-inch by 20-inch stretched canvas in linen starts from $22 CDN. [For a few points of comparison, also at the time of this writing, my toothpaste cost $4 CDN today, and 2 litres of Diet Dr. Pepper cost $1 CDN.]

You can assemble your own stretchers

You can buy commercially milled stretcher bars in various lengths and assemble them in your studio with simple hand tools. You're ready to start stretching your canvas in a matter of minutes. The stretcher bars are essentially the same as those used to produce the readymades. The advantages of assembling your own are:

You can save money. Maybe. At the time of this writing (February 2006), 16-inch stretcher bars cost from $1.25 CDN to $4 CDN apiece. Shop around, and remember that your time is valuable, too.
You can build a wider range of sizes. Stretchers come in lots of lengths, in even numbers of inches (6", 8", 10", etc.). I've never seen a 36" X 14" readymade canvas, but you could assemble one from off-the-shelf parts.
You can use your favourite canvas instead of the standard stuff. That means you can splurge on Belgian linen when you're feeling flush, and recycle an old tarpaulin when you're broke.
You'll always get a tighter canvas by stretching unprimed canvas, then gessoing it on the stretcher. Can't do that with readymade! Stretcher keys (little triangular bits you jam into the dovetailed corners) are remedial add-ons used to compensate for the floppy sloppy results of machine-stretching pre-primed canvas.

You can build your own stretchers

Why are handmade stretchers better than the ones you assemble yourself from off-the-rack stretcher bars? I have never seen a stretcher bar with a deep enough drop-off from the outside edge. A shallow drop means the important part of your canvas, the part with the painting on it, is exposed to the raw wood. That might be a conservation issue sometime down the road. The bigger problem is one you'll notice in the studio. When you paint, the canvas will bounce against that stretcher, leaving a telltale line in your painting.

If you get good at building canvas stretchers, you can earn money on the side building high-quality custom pieces for other artists in your community. Stick your card on the bulletin boards in your local art supply stores. Somebody always needs good stretchers. You did!

How to build a canvas stretcher

Mitre_clamp_8 Some things can't be taught in words. If you don't know what a mitre joint is, you're not ready to build your own canvas stretcher. If there's anything on the tools-and-materials list that you don't recognize, by name or on sight, you're not ready to build your own canvas stretcher. Show these instructions to a friendly woodworker, and trade paintings for carpentry lessons.

Tools and Materials

8-foot length(s) of 3/4" quarter-round AKA round-over molding
8-foot length(s) of clear pine one-by-two
1" finishing nails
carpenter's glue
hammer
mitre clamp
hand saw and mitre box [the hard way], or
mitre saw [the easy way], or
compound mitre saw [the easy, versatile way]

The goal is to build a rectangular wooden frame strong enough in all directions to withstand the stress of the stretched canvas. That frame must have a raised outside edge so that the canvas you paint doesn't rest on any wood, or press against any wood when you apply a brushstroke.

You're going to create your own eight-foot lengths of stretcher-bar-stuff, then cut them down to the pieces you need for your project. Save the excess for a future stretcher.

Nail and glue the quarter-round onto the wide face of the one-by-two, aligning a flat face of the quarter-round with an outside edge of the one-by-two.
HINT: Click on the diagram to study a large version carefully. This is one of the things people mess up. You want the flat edge of the quarter-round on the outside. Really.
HINT: Space your nails evenly about every six inches, and don't hide them. You will be cutting through this stretcher-bar-stuff later and you don't want to hit a nail. Nails destroy saw blades.
Plan your cuts.
HINT: How big do you want your picture to be? For a picture 16" by 20", you need two stretcher bars 16" long and two stretcher bars 20" long. Measure along the edge where the quarter-round is mounted.
Mark and cut stretcher bars with mitred ends from the eight-foot length(s) of stretcher-bar-stuff.
A mitred stretcher bar is shaped like a trapezoid. The longest side is the outside edge of your finished stretcher, and that should be the side with the quarter-round mounted on it. If you're a painter doing this for art and experience, and you've never seen a wood shop before, memorize this piece of folk wisdom: Measure twice, cut once.
Assemble the stretcher one corner at a time. Glue the corner, then secure it in the mitre clamp perfectly flat, perfectly aligned. Nail through the corner twice from each side.
If you're a woodworker doing this for love or money, and you've never seen a canvas stretcher before, pay special attention to this next bit...
HINT: The stretcher bars are assembled flat (not tall) and the quarter-round goes around the outside edge.
ADVANCED PLAY: If your stretcher's bigger than 36 inches a side, you'll also want cross-braces. Let's leave that as an exercise for the reader, shall we? This is when I'd reach for a biscuit joiner.

Relevant Links: How to stretch canvas

Stretching a canvas is like putting a flat sheet onto a bed, with crisp hospital corners... and then stapling it in place. (Hey, Doloros, that would have made boot camp easier!) There are lots of places on the web that show you how to stretch a canvas. However, the web changes every day. If one of these links should fade, you could use my description to do your own keyword search for similar relevant sites.

Make it or Buy it?

If you've got a compound mitre saw and mitre clamps and you know how to use them, making canvas stretchers is easy, and half the price. However, at the time of this writing (February 2006) a compound mitre saw costs $300 CDN to $700 CDN. How many canvas stretchers do you expect to build?

If I needed a standard canvas in a hurry, I'd buy it readymade, stretched and gessoed. If I wasn't handy, I'd buy readymade. If I was tragically separated from my tools and my studio, I'd buy readymade. If I was doing a student project or a commercial assignment (where museum quality isn't usually necessary), and I had more money than time, I'd buy readymade. But if I wanted a good deep canvas stretcher, I'd make one. If I wanted unusual or large dimensions, I'd make one. If I wanted to paint on anything other than standard ten-pound cotton duck, I'd make one.

If I was broke and had more time than money, I'd make canvas stretchers, using hand tools if that's all I had. I'd end up with better stretchers and I'd spend my savings on good paint and a shot of single-malt whiskey.

Canvas stretcher: Make it!

Do you (a) buy cake, (b) make it from scratch, or (c) throw a mix into a disposable foil pan with warm water and a flourish? It depends, of course. Do you want it "right," or right now? Every make-it-or-buy-it decision is the result of trade-offs. Can you make it better? Can they deliver it by Thursday? Can you afford it? Can they monogram it? Can you find the ingredients?

Mahl stick: Make it or Buy it?

A visitor to my new art supply store was disappointed that we didn't have any mahl sticks. That was a great learning opportunity for me. It had never occurred to me that anybody has a store-bought mahl stick. Woodworkers make their own push sticks, dressmakers sew their own pincushions and artists make their own mahl sticks, don't they? Well, not always. Sometimes, store-bought is better, and sometimes store-bought is easier, and sometimes, store-bought makes a nice gift. I should have mahl sticks in my store, for all of those "sometimes."

What is a mahl stick?

A mahl stick is a lightweight stick used by artists, scenic designers and sign-painters to support the working hand to avoid touching a vertical working surface. The Oxford English dictionary reports that it's also been called a maulstick, mol stick, mostick, and mallstick.

Any stick will do provided it's easy to grip on one end and has some sort of bulk on the other to keep it a bit off the surface. Traditionally, the bulky end has a ball or wad of cotton on it, wrapped in soft leather or chamois. The chamois keeps it from skidding, and can be cleaned or replaced when it gets grubby.

How to use a mahl stick

When you're working upright at an easel, you sometimes need to steady your hand. If the surface is delicate, or wet, you can't just plop your hand on the work. That's when you need a mahl stick. You grip one end with your (non-working) hand and press the bulky end on a dry spot somewhere across the other side of the work, or, ideally, beyond the art altogether. That creates a bridge across the picture where you can stabilize your working hand.

Bridges and hand rests

If you need to steady your hand when doing tabletop work, you can use an artist's bridge: a freestanding shelf that straddles the artwork. Most of us improvise: prop a board on a couple of bricks, or lay a t-square across the table, elevated by phone books. You could even use a mahl stick. There are some lovely clear acrylic bridges commercially available, if you know where to look. (See "Relevant Links" below.)

You can buy a mahl stick

There are commercially manufactured mahl sticks available for sale, but you'll have better luck shopping in sign-making stores than art supply shops. Luxury mahl sticks have a high price tag because of their beautiful wood finishes. The aluminum mahl sticks are made in two or three parts, light and collapsible for travel. Prices vary hugely, and they're a trick to find in Canada, but I can give you some ballpark figures. At the time of this writing (January 2006), a clear acrylic artist's bridge retails for $20 to $30 CDN, a plain aluminum mahl stick will run you about $15 CDN, and a fine wooden one can set you back at least $50 CDN. [For a few points of comparison, also at the time of this writing, my sweetie and I can see a first-release movie for roughly $25 CDN (if we don't want popcorn). A paperback novel costs about $12 CDN and a litre of milk costs about $2 CDN.]

You can improvise a mahl stick

All you need is a stick that will support your working hand without slipping or marking the work. What can you lay your hands on at your studio? Scrap dowel, or a pool cue? A broken hockey stick, or part of a fishing rod? Your cane, your umbrella, your putter? The advantage of using a cane as a makeshift mahl stick is that you can hang it from the drawing board until you need it next.

For example, looking around my studio, I see some prospects: the skeleton of crook-handled umbrella, the orphaned tubular aluminum legs of an old TV tray, bamboo poles, cardboard tubing, golf clubs, and an old folding easel I might sacrifice if I wanted to build a telescoping mahl stick.

You can make a mahl stick

My buddy Paul built me an excellent mahl stick last week from a spare length of doweling and a wooden ball.

Want to build one for yourself? Start with a convenient piece of dowel or rod in the neighbourhood of a meter long. (To my American friends: a meter is in the neighbourhood of a yard. Or "neighborhood.") It should be strong enough to resist bowing under the weight of your hand, without being a burden to hold up. Like athletes, we want our equipment to be strong and light. (This would be a great way to recycle a broken ski pole or other sports equipment made from "space age materials.")

Make one end "grippy" (optional). Paul dipped the dowel in Plasti Dip (TM), the stuff you use to rubberize tool handles. Aluminum mahl sticks usually have a knurled (textured) grip. If you're feeling sporty, buy some tape and wrap the end like a hockey stick or tennis racket.

Make the other end bulky. Paul put a wooden ball in a drill press to bore a hole, then he jammed the ball onto the dowel. You want the bulky end to be round, or round-ish, lifting the stick two to four centimetres off the surface. The traditional material is wadded fibre (such as wool or cotton), or a cork ball.

In the interests of research, we tried a variety of end-pieces. Some failed. The playground favourite, the red/white/blue striped ball, was too squishy to drill. Hollow balls, such as ping pong balls and squeaky pet toys, collapse under pressure. Safety tip: No golf balls. I don't know what's inside golf balls, but Paul blanched when I asked about drilling. Not safe. Not safe at all. Paul has no sense of humour about airborne fragments.

We quite liked the results with:

Superballs & silicone balls, which might be a bit heavy, but they sure look cool!
Cane tips & rubber leg tips, which are available off-the-shelf in several standard diameters.
A yellow happy face stress release squeeze ball. After the debacle trying to drill the red/white/blue ball, we didn't risk power tools on the happy face. We used a utility knife to notch a suitable hole.
A fishing "cork" bobber, expensive ($3.50 CDN) but so pretty!
Our favourite: Styrofoam balls, ten for a buck from the local dollar store. They drilled like a treat. It was equally easy to ram one onto a stick by hand, like skewering a very stale marshmallow for roasting.

Make the bulky end non-slip. Traditionalists wrap the end of the mahl stick in a patch of chamois or other soft leather, tied at the neck as shown. A clean rag will do. [Here's a secret. Paul actually dipped both ends of my mahl stick in Plasti Dip, so I don't need the leather wrapping. The wooden ball at the end is already non-skid and easy to clean.]

Make the stick nice (optional). Sanding, staining and varnishing will make a wooden mahl stick easy on the eyes and hands. Clean-up's a breeze, too. But if you don't care about paw-prints and splinters, that's your business.

Relevant Links

You can find anything on the web if you look hard enough. When I went looking for relevant stuff, I found useful things at these links. However, the web changes every day. If one of these links should fade, you could use my description to do your own keyword search for similar relevant sites.

This site sells sign-painting tutorials. The free sample lesson includes a short video loop of a sign-painter's hands doing script lettering, using a mahl stick.
A keyword search on "mahl stick" was all it took to find a variety of mahl sticks in the online catalogues of Cheap Joe's, Dick Blick, Mister Art, and Ziggy Art before the fun wore off.
Dick Blick Art Materials also carries see-through artist's bridges.
Love wood? Oklahoma Wood Art has some beautiful turned mahl sticks in exotic woods.

Make it or Buy it?

Paul and I had almost everything we needed on hand, including dowels and leather and Plasti Dip. I raided a dollar store for balls. If you own a drill press, making a mahl stick is easy, and you'd have a hard time spending more than $15 CDN to do it. At the time of this writing (January 2006) a suitable dowel cost $1.50 CDN. If you don't own a drill press, you may have to get by with cotton wadding like our forebears, but it's still easy!

If I needed a folding, collapsing, or screw-together mahl stick, I'd buy it. If I wanted to give someone a beautiful heirloom tool for their studio or workshop, I might buy it. Who makes their own mahl stick? Traditionalists, thrifty shoppers, and anyone who's handy and/or fussy about their tools. In general, if I wanted a mahl stick, I'd make it. But now I'll also stock them in my store, because I know that for someone else, store-bought might be better.