How to Tighten Stretched Canvas - more reliable method!

Saggy canvas can take away your joy of creating a painting! It also causes wrinkles on artwork, and can distract the viewer from all the beauty of the piece. Many factors can contribute to canvas losing its "stretch", but there is a way to resolve this issue. Unfortunately, highly recommended canvas tightening methods, such as spraying water on the back and using a hair dryer, or hammering in canvas keys, have not provided me with lasting results.

(and YUP - in my quick demo on canvas keys, canvas does have staples in the corners that prevent stretcher bars from coming apart - making canvas keys essentially useless in this scenario. This is how canvas came from the store, and I purposely used it AS IS - with included keys and without any canvas modifications. Obviously, canvas keys designed to work by pulling apart canvas frame corners - but they're not always the effective solution. Framed canvases, for example, can not be expanded with canvas keys. Sometimes, canvas keys do the stretching, but leave canvas lopsided).

My personal solution is a tad different, but over many years in the art business, it has served me well. I hope that it works for you too - please comment below on your results!

-Anastasia Mak

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