To stretch-frame a canvas, with the average, 2cm thick stretcher bar, it should be between 4 to 5 cm, at the very least and a
s illustrated in the image here. If the stretcher bar is thicker, add this extra thickness to the above, recommended thickness. The image on the canvas should have at least this width of all four sides of the canvas. This goes for all canvases, whether gallery-wrapped or not. This width will allow for the wrapping of the canvas around and over the four sides of the stretcher frame bars. Importantly ... this also allows for the picture framer's hands, canvas pliers or other hand tool to grip the edge of the canvas and pull.
The canvas must be pulled tightly and evenly all around the perimeter, or all four sides, of the stretcher frame. This is most important. If the canvas cannot be tightly gripped, the tension might be insufficient.If this occurs, the canvas may "puck" or "sag" somewhere or anywhere on its surface and or sides. Such appearance, undesirable and unsightly, is often also a sign that an amateur or inexperienced picture framer, may have done the stretching.
Generally, and if the margins are still whole, the canvas can be de-stapled, or taken off, and re-stretched, perhaps over a new stretcher frame. There are of course other reasons for a canvas puckering or sagging, such as the lack of corner or centre bracing, but often the main reason is inexperience. If you are considering stretching the canvas onto the stretcher frame yourself you might want to read this post.
If instead you're going to give it to a picture framer to stretch it for you, ask the framer, during the picture framing consultation, if this will or might be a problem. In addition, picture framers often have other customers' stretched canvases waiting for collection. You can ask your framer, if you could look at one of these and discuss its appearance with the framer. He or she should not mind discussing this aspect with you. If this happens, you might consider consulting a more helpful picture framer.
That said, a canvas cannot be successfully stretched unless there are four sufficiently wide, overhanging margins, so make sure you have those before you consider stretch-framing! Thank you for reading this post "How much or how wide do the margins need to be to stretch-frame a canvas?".
In my case for my Indian oil paintings I had problems. The oils were lovely but badly sized and stretched to start off with and tacked onto crooked frames which were taken off so that we could roll up the paintings and take them back to Australia with us, The problem was that the margins were all crooked. On on side there’d be 6 cms and the other sides there were 1, 2 and 4 cms. My picture framer said the only way to make stretch frames was to "come in" inside the paintings about 5 or 6 cms in each case. But that would have meant losing too much of the subject matter ( indian festival procession) so we ended up glueing the poster to thin boards and framing these with white frames. I must say this worked out nice and my paintings really look good. So, you don’t always have to stretch oil paintings over stretcher frames!
I tried stretching some painting i got from Vietnam a couple of years ago. They were a standard size so i was able to find a pre made stretcher frame but the margins for stretching were so small! I had about 10 or 15 mm to work with. The painting was also not square so it made it incredible difficult for amateur like myself to stretch. I tried but it came out horribly. It sagged in places and the sides just werent right. I wish i had read this article before hand as i was going in blind, im quite handy with my hands but this was a bit beyond me. I took it to a framer and he was nice enough to do it for me even though i made a mess of it and even ripped the margins a little. He said this wasnt a problem as he would glue it down. I was just happy he could do something with the mess i made. It looks so good on my wall and he did it all for like 120 dollars. Sometimes its just easier to get a professional to do it.
I tried stretching some painting i got from Vietnam a couple of years ago. They were a standard size so i was able to find a pre made stretcher frame but the margins for stretching were so small! I had about 10 or 15 mm to work with. The painting was also not square so it made it incredible difficult for amateur like myself to stretch. I tried but it came out horribly. It sagged in places and the sides just werent right. I wish i had read this article before hand as i was going in blind, im quite handy with my hands but this was a bit beyond me. I took it to a framer and he was nice enough to do it for me even though i made a mess of it and even ripped the margins a little. He said this wasnt a problem as he would glue it down. I was just happy he could do something with the mess i made. It looks so good on my wall and he did it all for like 120 dollars. Sometimes its just easier to get a professional to do it.
Yes, please visit our post “Should I really be getting get my souvenir Asian painting stretched and then framed? which not only discusses the stretching of canvases, but also the importance of having sufficiently wide margins for successful stretching.