How to do Gallery Wrapped Textile Art on Wooden Frames

Gallery wrapped textile art for a nice presentation

It’s not finished until it’s finished.

Wall art is supposed to be hung on walls.  Right? So, no matter how hard you work to complete your artwork, it’s not really finished until it’s installation-ready. In order words, until it’s ready for you or another person to pick it up and easily hang it on a wall where it was created to be, it’s not quite done yet.

There are different ways of doing this.  Previously, I taught you a way of mounting your textile art piece on wooden frames using Velcro. 

Check it out if you haven’t seen it. How to Mount Fiber Art on Canvas.

In this mini-course, I teach you an alternative way to finish the ends of your textile artwork nicely using facings and not wooden frames. Wooden frames are not always appropriate.  They can be heavy and expensive to ship.

I’ve got an exhibition coming up soon (more about that later) and I wanted to make the piece I showed you the other day installation-ready for that exhibition. You’ll want to consider gallery wrapping your work around wooden frames like I did mine if you’re interested in the kind of finished look it gives or if it’s a small piece that doesn’t need to be shipped a long distance.

So, here’s a tutorial to help you if you decide this is something you’re interested in doing.

Gallery Wrapped Textile art on Wooden Frames, How to Get it Done.

I got four loose stretcher bars and joined them together.  You can buy the ones which have already been joined. The loose stretcher bars are less expensive, though. More importantly, you can create custom sizes with the loose ones so you’re not limited only to the finished sizes available in your arts and crafts store. 

After attaching all four sides, I hit each side with a rubber mallet to make sure they fit snuggly.

Next, I lay the wooden frame on my art piece.

Now you want to center your piece and the frame so you have enough excess fabric to pull around the frame.

When you’re confident you have enough fabric to pull around the wooden frame, you start the wrapping process.

Now, use heavy duty staples to secure the fabric into place. Be careful not to work around the frame from one side to the next adjacent side.  Rather, you want to work on one side then move to its opposite side.

This way, you keep the tension in the stretched piece of art. The goal is that when you’re done stapling all four sides the piece will be as taut as a drum.

When you get to the corners you have to pay attention to how you finish them.  For one thing, they get bumped around the most so you can expect  wear and tear on the corners. That’s why you need to do them properly. Secondly, you want the corners to look neat – aesthetically pleasing. It’s all about the aesthetics, my friends. 🙂

When you have folded the corners in carefully and stapled them down, this is what they’ll look like.

When you’re all done, the back will look something like this. You trim off the excess fabric to tidy it up.

Then, you wire the piece with picture wiring to make it ready for hanging. Check out this tutorial on how to attach picture wire to the back of your artwork. 

This is what you get.

So, there you have it. Gallery wrapped textile art work on wooden frames, how to do it.

Note: you can use this same method to mount canvas on to stretcher bars or any two-dimensional mixed media artwork.

Are you finishing a piece for which you may want to try this technique? Or do you have a friend that would love this tutorial? Then share it with them.

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

Warmest regards.
Chat soon.

Love,