As a bit of a constant over my photographic journey, printing has always been a passion. Once you print, then what? Do you box and store? Do you hang on the wall? Do you swap out prints within a frame or two? For me, I’m curious about frame making and canvas printing.
With the imagePrograf pro-2000, I now have the ability to print on canvas. My first print was a 16x16 beach print. First, I printed on canvas just to see the results. Then, it sat around for a month waiting on me to figure out how to frame a structure to host the print. I also wanted to make a “floating frame” for the finished print. Just how does one do that?
For me, that means YouTube research. How to print on canvas? How to stretch a canvas? How to coat a canvas print? How to make a floating frame? Each point of this learning journey was another step towards being a maker. What is a maker you ask?
I watched a recent Adam Savage video that defined a Maker beautifully.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DUsBoLT1Yv8&feature=share
So I’m a maker even though I just learned of this term. I hope you can be a maker too!
As for what I made, here’s a quick visual telling of my first canvas print.
My first printing on Canvas. This was on a Breathing Color matte canvas -17” wide
Here, I’m trying to cover the print with a thin coating of Mod Podge. Note, I failed on the thin coat. This was taking forever to cure into the Florida humidity so I decided to take it outside into Florida sun. That worked wonders and also led to a small bug or two getting stuck. I tried to pick them out with my fingers and botched the surface texture. Lesson learned.
For cutting the frame, I YouTube miter jigs for table saws. I made one using a variant for the Ryobi BT3000 table saw. This saw has a built in sliding miter plate that I mounted the plywood too. It worked great. I hope to write this up for a future post.
The miter jig did great. I measured and cut with ease. But I failed to appreciate the change in dimensions associated with the relief in the frame. The inner square was just the write proportion. The frame, however, was 1.5” to wide for failing to account for the two 3/4” reliefs. No worries, just break apart, recut and learn.
The finished piece! After recutting, the print mounted perfectly into the frame. Prior to mounting the canvas, I stained and then coated the frame with white paint to give it a weathered driftwood look. This picture doesn’t show that too clearly, but it turned out quite nice.
I believe in the making process. I don’t do it enough. But, I think we should strive more for this in life. Whether it is cooking something from scratch to building a rocket ship with hopes of traveling to Mars, we are better for people thinking through the details and creating.