Glue linen to board?

Steven Rosati · 04-18-2007, 10:59 AM

Hello,
I have a long strip of fine oil primed linen about 18' x 5". I'd like to cut up and glue these pieces to boards for oil sketches. What would be the safest glue to use or would there be another way to attach them? I'd like to eventually frame the sketches.

Thanks,

Steve

George Holmes · 04-18-2007, 11:15 AM

Steven, although, I've never tried it, I've read more than once that acrylic medium (gloss) is good for gluing canvas to boards. See if anyone else replies with more info.

Richard Bingham · 04-18-2007, 01:10 PM

Acrylic medium will work . . . "sorta". Success depends on the absorbency of the canvas back, and the board you intend to use.

This is a variation on "maroflage", the process of gluing canvas to architectural walls as murals. The time-honored method was to use a paste of white lead compounded with varnish and oil. The modern replacement is "Beva-Gel" which is a vinyl-acrylic adhesive marketed by Kremer Pigments to replace the use of lead compounds.

Beva-Gel is somewhat costly - depending on your requirements, the vinyl-acrylic adhesives used in the building trades for setting tile and other materials are chemically very, very similar, and quite inexpensive. Test samples I have in full-weather conditions so far show no difference between construction-type adhesive and Beva-Gel. (two years and counting)

David Clemons · 04-18-2007, 06:21 PM

I've had problems sometimes with PVA and similar acrylic mediums creating air pockets when mounting canvas. If the wood is sized properly it seems to work better. Hide glue is a traditonal method that works quite well, but for a couple years now I've been using a dextrine starch paste product called Yes! that is extemely simple to use and holds the canvas very well.
http://www.ganebrothers.com/products.../yes_paste.htm

Mary Jane Ansell · 04-19-2007, 05:55 AM

Personally I like to use a layer or two of acrylic gesso... you might want to sand your board if it doesnt have tooth (if you are just using card board then obviously you wont need to:-)

Gesso fixes the linen or canvas to your support perfectly well, I've even used this method on completely non-absorbant surfaces like aluminium, and it's archival (you can remove it later if need be)

Hope you find what works best for you.

regards
Mary Jane