Permajet Canvas Starter Kit A3 Review

The more things change...

Isn't it funny how fashions and fads keep repeating themselves? Flares, leggings, skinny jeans, Star Wars, mullets. Well, maybe not mullets. But these fashions tend to be cyclical. They come, everyone wants them, then they go, disappearing into the ether, before miraculously reappearing without warning, often several decades later.

Take canvas, for instance. First used in the early 15th Century (but not significantly until the 16th Century), it was in the 17th Century that canvas replaced wooden panels as the surface du jour for North European artists. This remained so for oil painters across the globe, until the mass-market desire for paintings waned in favour of a brand new image producing technology - photography. This, combined with the ease of mass-producing prints and the Athena empire of the 1980's, meant that instead of finely painted oils on thick canvas in gilded frames hanging on walls, family portraits of children with forced smiles and posters of that tennis girl scratching her bum, became far more common across the UK. Canvas became the reserve of tents, bags and garden parasols.

However, thanks to Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen, numerous Sunday newspaper supplements and a certain Swedish furniture store, canvas is now firmly back in fashion. What started as designer prints sold in high-society interior design outlets, has become the phenomenon we see today, where high-street and mail-order photo labs are able to offer a "your photo on canvas" service, and sets of 3 'fine art' canvases can be found in Argos.

Now, a month ago my other half moved in with me. The up shot of this was that my bachelor pad styling has been completely re-worked into something far more "homely". Where I used to keep my remote on the sofa I now have scatter cushions. Where my all-in-one soap/shower-gel/shampoo/washing-up-liquid used to live, I now have herbal shampoo, herbal conditioner, herbal deep-conditioner, vanilla bubble bath, cocoa body scrub, exfoliating gloves, loofas, and something that buzzes when I turn it on. I believe it's called an epilator. And where my clip-framed poster of that tennis girl scratching her bum hung, I was informed there would be a set of 3 canvas block prints. On the plus side, I could choose the photos we'd use.

As already mentioned, there is a plethora of photo outlets offering the option of having your photographs turned into an artistic canvas print, but these can be a little, well, expensive. Have a look; for something around an A4 size you're looking at anything from £20 to £50 depending on the pedigree of the retailer. Of course, for a normal photographic print it would be easy. I could simply print 3 of my images off onto A4 paper at home using my PC and photo printer. If I wanted A3, I could use the printer at work. Bish-bash-bosh, job's a good'un.

But canvas blocks? You can't print those at home can you? Well, yes actually, you can.

DIY décor

Home printing is becoming more and more sophisticated and several modern printers allow you to print images on to all kinds of media, including photo quality paper, watercolour paper, thick board, and of course, canvas. But getting the images on to canvas is one thing; getting the canvas stretched onto a block frame is an entirely different matter. I for one wouldn't know where to start or how to go about it.

Then I spied the Permajet A3 Canvas Starter Kits on our website. I investigated further. These kits come with five sheets of canvas, enough wooden stretcher bars for five 12" x 8" frames, a heavy duty stapler plus staples and the all important canvas stretching pliers.

"Ah ha!" I thought to myself. "I could offer to review these, whilst simultaneously fulfilling my interior design brief!" And so I did.

Now, before I go any further I should tell you a little something about myself. I am not a natural D.I.Y.er; manual dexterity has certainly never been my forte. In fact I'd go so far as to state that my own personal level of hamfistedness is so great it has been suggested that opposable thumbs skipped a generation in my family. Still, looking to some of this country's best selling musical artists for inspiration, I wasn't going to let a lack of talent prevent me from succeeding.

There's a choice of 2 starter packs - Artistic and Photo. The Photo pack comes with 5 sheets of semi-gloss photo canvas. It produces a sharper, more photo-like image, but requires fixing with Permajet's Perma-Seal spray. As I didn't want to have to do that I opted for the kit containing 5 sheets of Artistic canvas; a heavier, rougher canvas that produces a slightly softer result. As already mentioned, the kits come with stretcher bars for 12"x8" frames, which is roughly the same size as a sheet of A4 paper. Not very big in other words. As such I decided to create a triptych; one picture divided into 3 separate frames which are hung next to each other. The image I chose to use was quite a bold, graphic image which would lend itself well to this style of printing and would suit the finish of the Artistic canvas.

Appearances can be deceptive

I'm not sure what I expected, but when the Canvas Starter pack arrived, it wasn't it. It came in a rather heavy, plainish brown cardboard box that looked more cash-and-carry than Artistic canvas. But opening the box revealed the contents in all their tessellated glory, with the stretcher bars, pliers, stapler, staples, canvas and instructions all nestled together in a way that would not look out of place inside a box of Fererro Rocher.

The first step was to print the images, which involved using an Epson R2400 printer we keep in the depths of Wex Photographic for exactly this kind of thing. In practice, there are many printers from both Canon and Epson and others that can be used, but you would need to check that they are able to handle the canvas media, which not all printers will. One word of warning though; by all means follow Permajet's guide as to which paper setting you should use, but when it comes to actually loading the paper in to the printer, I would recommend using the printer manufacturers instructions as to where and how you insert it.

The other thing to bear in mind is how you want the image to appear on the canvas. If you just require the image on the front panels with the edges plain white, then all you need to do is print the image at a size of 12"x8" in the middle of the A3 canvas sheet. However, if like me you want the image itself to wrap around the edges of the canvas you need to allow approximately an extra ¾" on each side, meaning that the image has to be printed at a size of 13½" x 9½" in the centre of the canvas.

Once they've been printed and allowed to dry, the images are ready to be mounted.

Find a happy place

My Dad always told me that before you commence any sort of construction project you should make sure that you have a clear and organised workspace. As such I thought the child free sanctuary of my garage would be ideal for this. Unfortunately, like my Dad, I appear to have accumulated a vast quantity of "stuff" in my garage, meaning that this workspace is neither clear nor organised. Next try was the kitchen table, but after a thorough search I was unable to locate it under the small mountain of brightly coloured paper, felt-tip pens, crayons, newspaper, paint and paintbrushes that 3 small children require to express their artistic temperaments. Finally, I waited for the children to retire to bed and set my workspace up on the living room floor. This gave me a clear, organised area to work in, with the added bonus of being able to watch Top Gear while I constructed the frames. Please note: this is probably NOT what Permajet would recommend.

Heavy duty? Not 'arf!.

Once unpacked it became immediately clear that this was no budget alternative to canvas mounting. The stretching bars were solid and well crafted and slotted together easily but firmly. The heavy duty stapler was exactly that. It weighed about the same as a small hatchback and dispensed the staples with a satisfying 'thunk'. Incidentally, if you have ever experimented with using the office stapler to shoot your colleagues you will already be aware that a regular stapler offers a disappointing level of range and power. This stapler is entirely different, so do not, under any circumstances, point it at anything you do not wish to staple. I did, and whilst the cat will make a full recovery, the plaster is in a real state where we had to pry him off the wall.

Equally solid and potentially dangerous in the wrong hands are the canvas pliers. Like regular pliers but with a greater surface area so as not to damage the canvas, these would not look at all out of place in a dentist's surgery, assuming that the dentist in question had a strong sadistic streak and only worked on hippos.

The mounting instructions supplied with the kit are pretty simple and straightforward. The first step is to assemble the frames. The kit is supplied with ten 8" bars and ten 12" which are enough to make five 8x12" frames. The ends of the bars slot simply together and once all four are in place the wedges can be pushed gently into the corner slots to help strengthen the frame.

The canvas is placed face down on the work-surface and the frame is placed in the centre on the reverse of the canvas. One edge is folded up and over and stapled in to place on the back of the frame. You then use the pliers to stretch the canvas over the opposite side of the frame and staple that into place. The corners are then gathered, folded and also stapled in to place before folding and stapling the remaining edges. It can help to have an extra pair of hands to keep the canvas taught whilst stapling, but it's by no means essential. All in all, it's much like gift wrapping. Only with staples.

Once the canvas has been securely fixed all the way around, the wedges can be tapped firmly in to place using a small hammer. This has the effect of further strengthening the frame and also ensuring the canvas is as taught as possible.

So that's pretty much it as far as the Permajet instructions go, but if you have the time and inclination, it is possible to find a wealth of information and advice on canvas mounting on t'interweb. As I have both the time and inclination I decided to have a look myself.

Lumps, bumps and broken rules

One of the main reasons for looking was that I wasn't entirely satisfied with the corner finish of my mounted canvases. As already mentioned, the Permajet instructions suggest you fold and wrap the corners as if you were using wrapping paper. The problem with this is that the canvas is rather thick, meaning that there are noticeable bulges in the canvas where the folds have been made.

The following snippets of information were gleaned from various canvas mounting guides and greatly improved the finished look of the canvases.

The first is a slightly more organised way of attaching the canvas to the frame. It suggests you should start by stapling the middle of one long side to the back of the frame. Then stretch the opposite side and fix the middle of that to the frame. Next, attach the centre of one of the short sides to the frame before stretching and fixing the opposite short side. Following this you go back to the longer side you started with but this time fixing one corner. You then move over to the opposite side and end and fix that corner, before going on to do the same with the short corner. You then repeat this process once more until all the sides are stapled. Confused? I was. This diagram should help clear things up. A bit.

It shows the order in which the different parts of the canvas are folded and attached to the back of the frame. The actual process should look a little like this:

The above process ensures that you get the canvas mounted as tightly as possible to the frame. Apparently, it should sound like a drum when tapped...

Now the tricky bit - the corners. Most canvas mounting guides still advise you to gather and fold the corners of the canvas, but this still leaves the kind of unsightly lumps and bumps you would only normally find on professional darts players with a fondness for spandex. Most pre-mounted canvases have a very tidy and flat finish to the corners and this is still achievable when mounting them yourself. Here's how:

1. Make a straight cut from the edge of the canvas to the edge of the frame. 2. Fold the side edge of the canvas over the frame... 3. So it looks like this. 4. Make a small cut along the top edge of the folded canvas (don't cut all the way through). 5. Fold this flap of canvas round and over the frame... 6. The canvas corner should appear like this. 7. Fold the end edge of the canvas over the frame. 8. Staple the canvas 2 or 3 times in the corner to fix all the layers to the frame. 9. Once complete it should look something like this.

Now, I've already had it pointed out to me by die-hard canvas mounters that cutting the canvas is a big no-no as it can weaken the canvas and cause it to split. Whilst I can entirely appreciate the logic of this, most pre-printed canvases will have been mounted this way as it does look neater. However, if you are concerned about this method and particularly if you are mounting larger canvases that require a greater amount of stretching and tightening, it is probably best to stick to folding in the excess canvas and live with the lumps and bumps.

Economic aesthetics

Ok, so given the time, energy and not inconsiderable cost involved, is it really worth mounting canvases yourself, rather than sending them away to be done? Whether you wish to invest your own time and energy will be entirely up to you, but for my part I quite enjoy this kind of thing and like having complete creative control from start to finish. With regards cost it very much depends on what equipment you already possess. If you currently have a printer capable of printing on to the canvas then that's one big expense already taken care of. If you don't, then that start up cost has to be taken in to account. That said, you would of course be able to use a new printer for a whole host of purposes, not just canvas printing. Therefore perhaps a more relevant consideration is to look at the print by print cost of mounting your own canvas art, versus the cost of paying to have someone else do it for you.

I've had a good look on the internet and it is possible to have your photographs turned in to an 8x12" mounted canvas block for approximately £20 at the cheapest. Although most quality outlets charge significantly more, this is the figure I have used for comparison.

At the time of writing this, the Permajet Canvas Starter Kit A3 costs £109.99 and provides enough stretcher bars and canvases to produce five 8x12" printed canvas blocks. Take into account the printer ink usage and you end up with a cost of approximately £23.00 per canvas. Now although this is around the same price you would pay a printing shop to do this for you, it requires significantly more time and effort than simply uploading photos to a website and clicking an order button.

However, along with the stretcher bars and canvases, the Permajet Canvas Starter Kits also provide you with the solid metal canvas pliers, the heavy duty stapler, and several thousand heavy duty staples - enough to decorate every wall in your house with family pets. So now you've got the tools you need, how much will it cost you per print from here on in? Here's an example:

The components listed above are enough for ten 8x12" mounted canvases. Taking into account the ink usage, this gives a cost per 8x12" canvas mounted print of approximately £8.50. Suddenly, the bargain basement print shop price of £20 doesn't seem so cheap and what's more, you'll have had complete creative control of the whole process!

Of course, you don't have to be limited to 8x12" as Permajet offer a range of canvas sizes. In addition, most of these sizes are available in different finishes, so you can chose the canvas you use based on the image you're printing.

There's also a range of stretcher bar sizes in both standard and premium versions. The Canvas Kits come supplied with the standard bars, but the premium bars offer a thicker and deeper mounting.

In the frame

All in all, would I recommend the Permajet Canvas Starter Kits? To be perfectly honest, if you're only ever likely to use the five canvases and frames contained within the box, then this kit is probably not for you. For the sake of obtaining five 8x12" mounted canvas prints of your photographs it is cheaper and easier to buy them online. However, the clue to the purpose of these kits is in their title; Permajet Canvas Starter Kits. And that's the point. These kits set you up with the means to mount canvas prints at home by providing you with the main tools for the job. Additional components can be purchased and the options of size and finish are varied. As I've said, if you just need 5 canvases printed, fire up your internet and order them. But if you're looking for an alternative way to mount your artistic output, now and in the future, and you like the complete control that D.I.Y. gives you, then these kits are an excellent first step.

Yes, I recommend them whole heartedly.