Free Download: How to Mount Fiber Art on Canvas Tutorial

Have you been following my #DrawwithClara – 30 Day Drawing challenge on Instagram? I transformed the very first sketch I drew in the challenge into this textile art piece I’m calling “Lovecicles”.  In this post, I’ll be sharing with you the progression of the piece and I’ve got a video at the end that ties the entire process together. I’ll also show you how to mount fiber art on store-bought canvas.

By the way, what a challenge!!! It was really tough sometimes. I’ve never drawn so much in any 30-day period before. But the results have been great. The practice has helped me create my first piece in the series – “Lovecicles”. So it’s truly been all worth it. I’m going to donate “Lovecicles” to SAQA’s 2018 benefit auction. Let’s get right to it. Here’s a 1-minute video of me speed drawing the initial sketch. (Click to watch). https://www.instagram.com/p/BhH2P91nN-a/?taken-by=claranartey And here is the “pioneer”  sketch.

Then starting from the lower left-hand side, I began to cut out fabric pieces to create a collage.  I started with my orange hand-dyed fabrics (can’t wait for warmer weather to start hand-dyeing again).

Creating “Lovecicles”

Moving along, I continued to work on the top portion of this shape. I toyed with different values of blue, ranging from light to dark. I eventually would redo the entire shape in dark blues,

Then I decided on this blue.

So many fabric scraps as a result of all the cutting.

Then, I also switched the left-hand side from light to dark to match the right-hand side and I attached it to the background fabric.

Initially, I started with a completely black fabric for the background but I decided to add some depth to it by painting it with grey acrylic paints so you’ll see the grey shapes in some of the detail photos,

The next step was to thread shade. Here are detail photos of my thread shading.

 

 

 

After thread shading, I cut the edges of my fiber art piece to get them nicely squared.  Then I used my favorite edge finishing technique – facings – to finish the edges.

How to Mount Fiber Art on Stretched Canvas

To mount the finished piece on canvas, I tried a new method which involves using velcro strips.  Traditionally, I sew sashing strips to the sides of my piece and staple to the wooden frame without finishing the edges.  This time, I wanted to explore completely finishing the edges with facings.  And then subsequently, attaching it to the wooden frame – a two-step process. Here’s a quick look at the process.  Download the ebook to get detailed instructions. The first part involved facing Lovecicles like you see two photos above and in several pieces shown here. After adding the facings, I could have just stitched them down and it would have been ready for display.  But as I said earlier, I wanted to give it some more display options by mounting it onto a stretched canvas. To do that, I employed the help of a hook and loop velcro set and a blank canvas. Then the second part started with me pinning one-half of the velcro strips onto my attached facing strips. Then I sewed it down my sewing machine, not by hand. This way, I didn’t have to hand sew them on. I attached the velcro to the back of my finished piece and fastened it to the stretched canvas. Ta da !!!!!!!!!!

And here it is displayed on a table.

And here’s the video. It shows the process from the beginning to the thread shading part.   To get step-by-step directions on how to mount your fiber art piece on stretched canvas download this FREE ebook, I created for you. It’s got 20 PLUS photos to illustrate the steps and instructions on how to install hanging hardware to the canvas. I want to hear from you. How do you display your fiber art? Any challenges?  Leave your comments below. Warmest Regards,     SaveSave SaveSaveSaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave