How to fit canvas keys - the little wooden bits

Also known as a Canvas Wedge or Painter's Corner. They are used to keep the frame pushed apart to hold the canvas taught. There should be 8 of them, two for each corner.

The edge of the frame is made up of 4 stretcher bars with joints in each corner. 

Looking from the inside, each corner will have grooves cut into it at an angle. They will be offset on each stretcher bar.

Tap the frame apart before putting in the wedges.

Use a hammer to tap on the stretcher bars from the inside. On smaller frames this can be in the middle to evenly do each edge, on larger frames it may be necessary to tap nearer the corners and use the same force at either end of the same stretcher bar.

Tap on the inside of each edge, so that the canvas is stretched evenly. The amount of movement is likely to be less than a millimetre and may not even be visible at the corners, but will be enough to tighten the canvas.

Be careful with existing paintings not to overstretch the work and crack the paint.

Tap in the wedges

The wedges are to hold the joint slightly apart.

They can be fitted parallel to the frame. My preference is to align them pointing towards the centre of the canvas. In either case, the longer edge is closest to the outside of the frame. I find the later method easier to get the hammer in to hit the ends of each wedge as they do not overlap.

Whichever position they are fitted, simply tap them in. The wedge shape will stop the corner closing up and can be used to fractionally force the frame apart to get that last bit of stretch needed to make the canvas evenly taught. The wedge in one stretcher is pushing against the timber of the other stretcher.

Put one wedge in the ends of each stretcher, so each corner will have two wedges.

They stay there

Once fitted the wedges should remain there. If the canvas sags, the frame can be tapped out a bit and the wedges tapped in again to hold it in place.

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There are a number of articles by others that go into more detail. I found the following clear and comprehensive:

How to Use the Canvas Wedges That Come with a Canvas or Stretcher Bars - Jackson's Art Blog (jacksonsart.com)

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Artist Palette

Shelley has taken up oil painting. She is having a great time.

I decided to make her a paint palette. I could easily have bought one, or many, at very little cost, but I have lots of offcuts of 5mm plywood from The Shed build so it has made a fun small project to do in the new workshop.

I designed the shape in QCAD to help find a suitable position and size for the thumb hole. I did a bit of research to understand the traditional evolved shape. There is a nose which helps to hold brushes and the corners are curved to be comfortable with your body and, I have assumed, to avoid poking the canvas with a bit that sticks out. From that, I created a paper template.

I cut a stack of three at the same time. The plan was to try to stop the ply splitting, but, as it happened, the blade I used in the jigsaw made a fairly clean cut.

I did the detail shaping with a Dremel rotary tool fitted with a small sanding tube. The outside edges I was able to do on my disc sander. I removed a little extra material in a few places, like the thumb hole, to make it more comfortable.

I've sealed them with Linseed oil. It's the same type of oil used to mix with the paints, so I know it's going to do the job.

That's it, Shelley can try one and if she wants any changes I can tweak them as required.

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Saddle Rack

Trying to be as efficient as possible with the space in the new tack room, I've built my own saddle rack using key clamp fixings.

I'm making several other fixtures in the newly completed outbuilding and I have opted to use 42mm outside diameter poles and key clamps for all of those.

By trial and error I found that a spacing of 500mm between the saddle racks was a comfortable size.

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