How to Gallery-Wrap a Textile Painting

Do you like this professional look of gallery-wrapping your textile art onto wooden stretchers? - If yes, read on.

1) Assemble your stretcher bars and check that they are really square.

2) In my example, I'm using three textile images which I painted on silk with cotton batting and then stitched by hand. They are ironed and ready-to-be-framed.

3) Place your artwork facing down and the wooden stretchers on top. The top fabric needs to be larger, so that it can be wrapped to the back covering the sides. (The depth of your stretchers determines how much extra fabric you need.) - I do trim the batting to the size of the stretchers (or a little less) so that I don't have to wrap the batting.

4) Staple from the center to the corners, always going across from the last staple. You want your painting or art quilt to be taut.

5) When you come to the corner, fold the top neatly.

6) Staple it firmly. - At this point, you could say: "I did it", but I add a few more steps to have each piece ready to hang.

7) For this mini series "The Age of Gold", I painted from the sides towards an oval of the central image. - Let it dry.

8) Trim the top silk on the back, so that half of the wood is visible.

9) With acid-free binding tape, I secure the entire image. (BTW, I'm not endorsing any products, just sharing what I used for this specific project.)

10) Attach two D-rings towards the top.

11) Stretch metal wire between the two D-rings.

12) You are DONE!

Congratulations!