Floating Painting On Fabric

Shayla

WOW Framer
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During designing this, I mentioned the possibility of floating it to look like this, with all the edges showing. She loves the idea, so now I'm figuring out how to do so. It's paint on fairly thin cotton fabric, and although I'm no paint expert, I'd guess acrylic.

I can imagine a few different ways to do it. One would be to roll fabric glue on the back and mount it to a backing with a roller, but with the fabric somewhat warped from the paint, am concerned it might wrinkle there. Another is to glue fabric hinges to the back (or strips), then wrap them around a float platform. But I'm guessing it's not sturdy enough for that, or why would BEVA be suggested for doing it instead? And doesn't BEVA require heat? Seems like heat (including the 130 degrees needed for Canvas MountCor), might melt the paint. It was painted in Haiti, and who knows what else was added. I have no idea how much heat it takes for a flammable thing to ignite, but I'd rather not be the one who starts that campfire. Anyone here with knowledge on these things is welcome to share it.

A couple of years ago, I took a class from a teacher who said folks are doing such canvas floats with Dual Lock, after which he suggested it as a possible float help for things like aluminum photos and cast paper. He made sure to say that it wasn't for art of any real value, but I'm still leery of the idea. As well as the Dual Lock might hold, who knows what's in the adhesive, or whether it will eventually give way or discolor when possible.

We're using an outside frame, and for the float backing that shows out around the piece, she's open to a range of options. We could use a wide black frame that's hidden behind it, with the float back glued (or screwed) into it and only a part of the outside of the frame showing before it tucks under strips at the side of the 'frame frame'. (ha ha....don't look that up). Or we could use a board, (or gatorboard? or Mighty Tough?) painted black. Or we could use a matboard, mounted to a hard substrate (marble? my skull? sorry, I need some comedy relief), in which case, it seems like we should cover the whole thing with glass.

Pondering which to use has started to feel like sitting at the little table and arguing with the Sicilian over which cup has the iocane powder. So, I thought I'd ask my friends. Oh, and the painting is about 18 x 25".
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Simple, paint some staples white and staple along white edge.
For backing use gator or 1/4" Luan.
When stapling, use long staples, raise art a bit above table so back of staples extend beyond the backing.
Then flip art package over and bend back staples, tape to stay put.
 
I think the Franks would work fine, just weight it down well & leave overnight. You could use foam (the kind used for laminating) between the art and the weight to make sure any of the wrinkly inconsistencies are adhered.
 
For what it' worth, I've been using PMA on cheaper canvases lately for a client who wants them to be removable in the future. It has worked a lot better than I'd ever expect. I position the piece then put it in my vacuum press on 80 degrees or so for about 10 minutes. It will peal off if yanked, but I haven't had any issues with bubbles... Could you mount the canvas to 8 ply or gator board that is cut smaller than the canvas (maybe to the original stretch marks), then use PVA to glue the mounted board to your fabric? Also, 130 degrees shouldn't be enough to melt acrylic/latex which is more than likely what you have there. You could test a tiny section on the edge with your tacking iron first which is much hotter.
 
mount a fabric of your choice to a board of your choice just a few inches larger than the art. stitch the canvas to said board. frame that. to avoid excess billowing or puckering, place your stitches as you would hinges - sparingly.
 
Roll Frank's on the verso of the painting and apply to platform mount of FC. Frank's on the back of the platform and adhere to the fabric back. Put a phone book on top overnight... You did save your old phone books, didn't you???


I would not employ this method with anything but travel paintings.
 
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