Canvas Frames – Make You Own Or Buy In?

[Jason Xuereb]

I buy mine. Check your art suppliers for frames. Down here the suppliers have the ones which lock into each other.

[Graeme Speirs]

If you want one with frames and canvas you can remove the canvas, Au Natural on the high street has plnety of differing sizes.

graeme

[Shane Drew]

I get mine made (by a member here)

Basically, I feel my time is more valuable making signs, so I’ll let the professional framers do a better job than me, to give a better result, and I can do what I do best.

[Harry Cleary]

you beat me to it Shane, if it’s only 5 frames get down to your local picture framing service….never know he /she might have work or an outlet for you as well.
alternatively …have a look at these people….I use them all the time
http://www.arqadia.co.uk/commerceportal … No=DEFAULT

[Brooke]

If you buy or make your own, the moisture content of the timber can vary from piece to piece, this can sometimes cause warping of the frame once under tension. I recommend you go to reputable framer. This way you have a better chance of getting a frame with even moisture content in all pieces. You can purchase the ready made frames also. But this takes time and canvas stretching is not that easy to do. Check out canvas stretcher on youtube…. video presentation. not a bad machine.

[John Stevenson]

Try this

http://www.artifolk.co.uk/catalog/produ … r_bars.htm

John

[Darrell Wootton]

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback.

Some good points highlighted – best to leave the frames to the people who specialise in them.

Thanks

Daz…..

[lee smith]

make them yourself daz. I’m sure you can fix 4 pieces of timber from B&Q together!. use either 2" x 1" or 2" x 2" if you want it chunkier. the easiest way would be to lay all 4 pieces on a flat surface. glue them together lightly with no more nails or wood glue (just to hold em), making sure it’s all at right angles (use either a gridded workbench or a right angle tool) Then do all the rest giving the glue a chance to set. Then a brew and a fag for good measure so the glue does have time to set, go back to the first one and pre-drill all the joins, countersink them, then pop a thin screw in for good measure…. and voila….job done. Don’t need hanging hooks or anything. Most ‘shop bought canvases’ don’t have em. joe public just hangs it on a nail from the top inside frame i guess. It’s not a professional task, just experiment to find a comfortable way of working for yourself. timber costs next to nothing, but can make you money.

[David-Foster-]

quote lee smith:

make them yourself daz. I’m sure you can fix 4 pieces of timber from B&Q together!.

Oh dear! Sorry, but the cost of the canvas and the printing and the work fixing it and stapling it, you would waste all that on a couple of quids worth of timber from B & Q that would probably warp like a dogs back leg. Bizzare, notwithstanding not having the facility to put in wedges to tighten the canvas later.

Buy proper stretcher frames and wedges if you are selling quality stuff.

[Martin Pearson]

David, I thought exactly the same thing when I read the thread but I suppose it depends where your market is. If you want to produce and sell quality framed prints then find a supplier for frames or buy the equipment to make them yourself properly, if you want to sell on places like ebay at 50p cheaper than the next lowest seller them just bang a few planks together.

[Shane Drew]

quote martin:

David, I thought exactly the same thing when I read the thread but I suppose it depends where your market is. If you want to produce and sell quality framed prints then find a supplier for frames or buy the equipment to make them yourself properly, if you want to sell on places like ebay at 50p cheaper than the next lowest seller them just bang a few planks together.

That’s basically what I meant too martin. If you want ‘top dollar’ or at least a good dollar, it needs to look professional. I don’t see any value in saving a buck, if your going to produce, what looks like a second rate product.

I have two photographers I do work for, one is intent on dong his own framing and stuff, and to get the margins, wants me to come in as tight as I can so he can make a better profit. The other is happy to have a professional result, so he can get a reasonable to good price for his work. He still wants me to do a competitive rate of course, but his focus is on the finished product being a first rate appearance, and not looking like something he has thrown together in the garage in his spare time.

I’ve compared both finishes, and whilst they are excellent photographers, there is no denying the professional framing looks… well.. more professional.

[Dave Martin]

I buy mine in you can get them pre built or sold in bits so to speak.
Cost is about £32 for a pack of 10 complete frames (20" x 20").

[Stephen Morriss]

If you can buy a pack of 10 frames for £32 I wouldn’t bother making them any time, unless is was a quick job and I didn’t have them in stock.
£3.20 for a frame is nearly nothing especially when you take your time into account.

I’ve just done a few canvas prints for a woman that wanted them gluing to a board so that what I’ve done.
If I’d had some suitable frames in stock though I would have tried to persuade her to have them instead.

Steve

[lee smith]

i fully take on board what you’re saying guys, but carpentry runs in the family, and if my dad knew i was buying ready made frames after all he’d taught me he’d probably disown me! (:)

[Shane Drew]

quote lee smith:

i fully take on board what you’re saying guys, but carpentry runs in the family, and if my dad knew i was buying ready made frames after all he’d taught me he’d probably disown me! (:)

:lol1: :lol1: :lol1: may have been good to clarify that in your original posy lee :lol1: … Not all of us a carpenters, or good with tools for that matter 😛 I’m speaking for myself of course 😳

[David-Foster-]

Understand what your saying lee, however, proper framing material is shaped, bevelled. They don’t use standard square/rectangular section and the facility for wedges. Once a canvas is hung, depending on humidity etc of room, it may loosen a bit and the frame will want expanding a bit.
But horses for courses, what you are doing may be perfectly suitable 😀

[Shane Drew]

quote lee smith:

if my dad knew i was buying ready made frames after all he’d taught me he’d probably disown me! (:)

Its just dawned on me 😮 My father in law was a carpenter.. he disowned me years ago… you may have just solved a mystery that has haunted me for… days :lol1:

[lee smith]

come to think of it shane …. i don’t speak to my dad much either. funny lot, carpenters …. too much sawdust in the air they breath you see. anyway, cheers for the humour guys. i don’t feel as much of a fool now. speak to you guys soon. lee

[Martin Pearson]

lee regardless of your background you have advised another member who probably doesn’t have a background in carpentry to just wack four bits of wood together.
As David points out proper framing is not square or rectangular and is not sold in B&Q.

I can understand that you were only trying to help but as I said above not everyone will have the same skills you may have. As for your Dad disowning you I doubt that would happen once you had explained to him how valuable your time was and it was actually more cost effective to buy then in.

[Peter Normington]

Alan Clooney is local to me and does very good work,
the end product looks far better if done properly.
01582 494732
or
http://www.acfineart.co.uk/

website for info only at the moment

but for an example of his frames (I dont have an example of a canvas stretchers just now) I will post in the portfolio section, some canvass I recently did

Peter

[Shane Drew]

Peter, like the new avatar…. but its hard to type with you looking at me like that… :lol1:

[Lynn Normington]

how do you think I feel Shane 😀 😀

Lynn

[Shane Drew]

quote Lynn:

how do you think I feel Shane 😀 😀

Lynn

:rofl: :rofl: Never thought of that!!

[Andrew Boyle]

Peter,

you have to keep that avatar… 😀 excellent

and i make my own and never really had a problem… 😀

[Marcella Ross]

oh Peter thats bloody funny!

[Shane Drew]

quote Marcella:

oh Peter thats bloody funny!

😕

😛

[Martin Pearson]

Now I know what Peter meant when he said he would use the picture as a burglar deterrent :lol1:

[Nicola McIntosh]

peter you eating a murry-mint :lol1:

nik

[Martin Pearson]

Must be something like that Nicola, he’s been at it for ages :lol1:

[Nicola McIntosh]

quote martin:

Must be something like that Nicola, he’s been at it for ages :lol1:

either that or he’s been feeling a bit washed out :rofl: :rofl:

nik