Sunday, September 23, 2012

Excellent Stretcher Strips For Your Art Work

You need excellent stretcher strips and other styles of stretcher bars for your stretcher frame that will ultimately hold your precious art work. Premier warehouses for stretcher bars such as Stretcher Bar Warehouse (SBH) today market Fredrix stretcher bars or stretcher strips of great quality. These stretcher bars are marketed in the Medium (Standard) Duty Style. The size of these bars is ¾” in depth and 1 5/8” in width. These standard bars are used by the vast majority of artists and framers. These stretcher strips have slightly raised and rounded edges as against sharp and flat edges. The purpose of these raised and rounded edges is manifold. They reduce the friction that occurs during stretching and allow for a tighter canvas face that is consequently more even as well. There is also a reduction in the stress on the canvas and this protects the canvas from any accidental damage.

For your stretcher frame your need for other styles of stretcher bars can also be met by SBH. The Light Duty bar is very economical with a cross section of 5/8”x 1 3/16”. The Medium/Heavy Duty bars also called Goldilocks are a great compromise at a square cross section of 1 3/16”. The Heavy Duty or Midi variety of bars give you added depth and yet don’t cost that much and have a square cross section of 1 ½”. Finally, when you have a very large and heavy canvas you can order the Super Heavy Duty. These have a width of 2” and this gives you an exceptional foundation.

Friday, September 7, 2012

What You Should Know About Canvas Stretcher Bars

Canvas stretcher bar buying basics
 
When you are faced with the task of buying canvas stretcher bars, be sure to take your time to seek out the best quality bars that you can find. Quality is a major concern while buying stretcher bar frames. These days, there are many brands available in the market. They also come with different prices tags and features. However, before you get too tempted to buy any one of them, especially one with a particularly attractive price tag, pause for a second and think whether you are really getting a good quality product. Low quality canvas stretcher bars can pose a lot of problems. The major one among these is getting twisted out of shape when used to stretch a piece of canvas. Remember, dimensional stability is a serious problem with bars of low quality wood.  

So what’s the solution?
 
One of the best ways to minimize the chances of such accidents is to insist on good quality canvas stretcher bars. Storing them under the right conditions is also important. So you should avoid placing the bars in a place of high humidity or in a very hot or cold environment as such extremities can cause even the best quality stretcher bar frames to bend or get warped. Another useful means to counter the problem of bending is to use bars that have been constructed using short pieces of wood or short splines, instead of longer, continuous strips of wood. The huge amount of pressure exerted by the stretched canvas, in most cases, causes the frame to get twisted out of shape. However, the presence of short splines prevents this by lessening the pressure to a great extent. This is achieved by distributing the strain across all the short pieces evenly.

Finding the best bars at the best prices 
 
Under typical circumstances, stretcher bar frames are required in multiple quantities. This is because they are usually used by artists and professional framers. So unless you want to run the risk of running out of stretcher bars at an inopportune moment, you should always consider stocking up on them well in advance. It also makes a lot of economic sense because buying the bars in bulk can help you avail of special bulk discounts. There are some very popular online dealers of such products who can sell you excellent quality bars at very attractive rates. Buy in bulk and you can enjoy even further rebates.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Advantages of Artist Stretcher Bars

Finding a canvas stretcher frame has never been easier; with so many stretcher bars warehouse and dealer’s available online one does not have to go around looking for them. Known as the artist stretcher bars since these frames are mostly used by artists for stretching canvas for their artworks and by art lovers and collectors to frame original canvas paintings to give it a rustic and authentic look. These frames create a smooth canvas surface for artists to paint as well as frame their finished art work in style and without the hassle of changing frames. Canvas stretching bars are attached together to form sturdy and strong frames.

Artist stretcher bars are made with good quality furnace dried woods and manufactured by fragmenting single bars of wood by finger splines, this makes the bars stronger and mush more resistant to bending, twisting etc. Special attention is given to the quality of wood that is being used; they consist of minimum knots that do not affect the bars strength or durability. The frames for the canvas stretching bars are designed and constructed keeping artist’s needs in mind. These frames come in different sizes to stretch the canvas accordingly.

You can easily find lots of stretcher bar warehouse online that provide a variety of frames at affordable prices. The quality and price of frames may vary from one dealer to another. Make sure you are investing in quality product and not spending too much. Online product rating and customer feedbacks can help you choose the right warehouse for your specific needs.