Stetching Paper


01/07/06 Update:

In previous how-to articles, we've mentioned that Rita stretches her paper.
But we've never described what that means. So today, we're going to do just
that!

Now, we've tried several different methods and this is the one that works the
best for Rita. However, as you read this, if you have a better idea, we're
all ears. And some watercolor artists do not stretch their paper at all. So
this is a matter of what works for you as the artist.

The board:

We use a board called Homasote. It is 7/16 inch thick and is made from recycled
newspapers (I believe). So it's gray in color and much lighter than plywood. We
tried using plywood, but it was so hard to insert and extract staples, that we
looked for other options. What makes Homasote really nice is that it is easy to
staple into and it can take repeated stapling well. The negative is that not all
lumber stores carry it. And if left untreated, it can bleed acid from the
recylced newsprint into the watercolor paper. At least, that's our guess because
it stains the paper yellow. Regardless of the root cause, this is not good!

So we'll buy a 4X4 piece and cut it down to the sizes needed. A full sheet of
watercolor paper is 22X30, so we cut it to 23X31 for example. I have a table saw,
but a circular saw would work just fine. To seal it, we've used 2 or 3 coats of an
oil based white primer. And that has worked very well in sealing off whatever
was causing the yellow stains.

The paper:

Rita's favorite paper is Arches 140 lb cold press. But she will also use 300 lb
weight papers if she gets a sale price on them. Regardless, she will stretch them
all. For painting she tends to use a lot of water and the paper tends to ripple if
it's not properly stretched (the 140 lb more than the 300 lb).

The only place large enough to handle a full sheet of paper is the bath tub. So
Rita will fill a clean bathtub with 2-3 inches of water. She'll lay the paper in
the water and press it down several times to make sure it's covered with water.
And she'll let it soak for 15 minutes or so. And during that time frame, she'll
come back and push the paper under the water 2-3 times since the paper tends to
float. The goal is to get the paper to absorb the water. As this occurs, the
paper begins to expand.

The stretch:

After the 15 minutes (or so) is up, Rita will lift the paper out of the water and
place it on the painted homasote board. Since the board is 7/16 inches thick,
she will use 3/8" staples. And she will place one staple in the top center of the
paper. She'll then push down the paper with firm but gentle pressure to make sure
the paper is stretched and then insert another staple bottom center. And then
she'll repeat the process for left center and then right center. Once there are
staples on the center of all four sides, then she will begin adding more staples
working from the center to the corners. As she's doing that, she'll continue to
firmly push into the corresponding corner to make sure she doesn't end up with a
a loose corner when it dries. Here's a photo of the completed stapled piece:



You can see that we don't staple to the edge of the paper and that we do staple
fairly close together. That's so that as the paper dries, it doesn't tear (it's
either too close the edge of the paper or there's not enough staples to hold it.)
The paper definitely begins to pull tighter and tighter as it dries. Enough so,
that it can bend the homasote board.

Here's another pic of Rita painting Days Gone By. But you can see the homasote
board that the paper was stretched on. Obviously, I had not painted the edges of
the board, but some of the paint had dripped over the edges.



Hopefully this makes sense. If not, just shoot us an email and we'll do our best
to answer your questions. Enjoy!!