Final stages...

I have started on the mounting of the latest piece, which involves going through a series of procedures. I have blogged on this before but shall do so again as I have been asked how I finished of these pieces. I use a firm canvas duck for the mounting. This is always heavily dressed so needs to be washed, and shrunk. If anyone has ever put duck through the washing machine, you will know that it is impossible to iron afterwards! My method is to wash while it is spread out on the driveway.


Duck is scrubbed with hot soapy water, both sides, then rinsed with the garden hose. On a good day it doesn't take too long for it to dry in situ. This method avoids any creasing. Note my scrubbing brush clamped to a long independent handle. I don't know where we got this long handle many years ago but it has been a great investment!

Once the duck is dry, I machine stitch a 4cm/1.5" hem along the top and bottom edges. The sides are left with a raw edge and just a row of stitching to hold the threads in place.

Painting on the border using a flat interior paint (Resene). Top side seems to need two coats. I also do the back side so that if it the piece lifts away from the wall it looks better, but just one coat for this side. If I had not washed the duck, the borders would shrink with the wet paint, making the centre area buckle - not a good look!