I’m finishing off 2007 by putting the final touches on the last big project of the year. Read the rest of this entry »

So,Christmas is over and today I was back to work in the studio. We had a wonderful few days of Vermont peace. I hope my readers got some relaxation and joy too! It snowed all afternoon, and once again I couldn’t resist going out and getting some shots. Read the rest of this entry »

In answer to John’s question about where to buy canvas and what type of canvas to buy let me discuss the possibilities.

Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks, everyone, for subscribing to my blog. The response has been fantastic! So let’s get started…

In my first post I showed you a bit about how the design was developed. Having figured that part out, now I have a template for the piece. I printed it out to scale so that I can measure directly off the printout to know all the needed dimensions.

Theresa, my assistant, pulled 9 feet of 10-foot-wide canvas off the bolt of #4 (the heaviest weight canvas I have) and laid it out on the table. Then she took hot tap water and soaked the top side, rolled it up, flipped it over and soaked the back side. What this does is to remove the size which is applied during the weaving process. Size will repel paint, so removing it is a necessary step if you want the paint to stay on the floorcloth! Soaking the canvas also causes the fabric to shrink. A piece this size will shrink up to 8″ with this first application of water. We let it air dry on plastic so that it can shrink as much as it wants.

When the canvas was all dry (about 24 hours), Theresa applied a coat of latex primer to one side. This causes a little more shrinkage and locks the weave of the canvas so that it becomes stiffer and more stable. That was allowed to dry another 24 hours.

OK, so we’re ready to lay this thing out and cut it down to size.

This is the shrunk, primed canvas ready to be measured. he primed side is down, against the table.
The final floorcloth will be 7 feet by 9 feet and we add a 1 and a 1/2 inch hem all the way around, so we need to cut a 7′3″ X 9′3″ rectangle.

We check for squareness using the old carpenter’s rule of 3, 4, 5. That is, two sides perpendicular to each other, one of 3′ and the second of 4′ will give you a 5′ diagonal joining the ends of the perpendicular lines. Whew! Good thing I was a math major!

So, it’s square.

Now we measure out the 7′3″ X 9′3″ rectangle. When that’s all laid out, Theresa goes back and double checks all the corners for squareness. if anything is of, it can mess up a design really bad. Another carpenter’s Golden Rule: measure twice, cut once. I like to expand that to measure 3 or 4 times, cut once! I’ve only regretted it when I didn’t do it!

One last thing before we cut this down: the finished floorcloth is an oblong octagon, not a rectangle. I go back to my drawing and see that the corners are cut off at 18″ in from each corner. So we measure in, and draw a diagonal line which cuts the corners. Now we go around and mark a line 1.5″ in from the entire edge. This will be the hem line and the canvas will be folded and pressed along this line.

We use very sharp scissors (and strong hands!) to cut the canvas. Then we use a flat iron to go around the entire edge, turning the hem. The floorcloth is ready now to be sewn.

My next post will show you how we do the sewing.

if you have any questions about this step go ahead and post a response or email me directly. I’ll try to answer as soon as I can. If you know anyone who might be interested in this process please pass this along and tell them to subscribe!

This is the first post in what I hope will be many showing all the steps involved in making a custom floorcloth.

First, a little history. Back in October Margaret and Les drove up from Connecticut to meet me and talk about a floorcloth for their kitchen. I showed them floorcloths in progress in the studio and several in use in our house. Then we went to work trying to find designs which appealed to them most. They looked through photos, swatches and my doodle-ideas and we came to a few conclusions.

The floorcloth would be 7′ X 9′ and an oblong octagon would work best, given their kitchen set up. When they got home they sent me some photos so I could get a better idea of the room.

They had chosen a few designs that appealed to them most. Like these:

326335738

We still weren’t sure about colors, but blue was not one of their favorites, so I had to steer away from that.

So I sat down and came up with an idea and emailed it off to them:

1122 Their initial reaction was that they loved the design, but they wondered about the scale and the shape of the flowers in the border. So I tried a couple of other ideas:

11331136

Something just wasn’t quite working, so I suggested a different type of border:

1139 This was better, but the black was too heavy. Notice that the center changed from a lattice design to a stamped design.

Finally, we settled on this one: 1157 and Margaret sent me color chips she liked best.

So the next step is to shrink the canvas, prime one side , measure, cut and hem it. Check in tomorrow for some more pictures.

I’d love to hear your comments about these designs. Let’s get a conversation going!

82 The Washington Post printed an article (which originally came from the Milwaukee Sentinel) yesterday. You can read the article by clicking here.

The following clip is from Vermont Public Television’s Rural Free Delivery show. It shows the studio, floorcloths in progress and how Lisa turns canvas into works of art to walk on.

Just in time for Christmas. I have picked a collection of floorcloths that are here in the gallery and put them on the internet so that everyone can have a look, go shopping and save some $$$! These floorcloths have been on display at Canvasworks throughout the year, so their prices are significantly reduced. I will replace those that sell with new designs so that the Gallery stays fresh. I also have sets of canvas-on-cork coasters, runners and placemat sets. Call me if you’d like a complete list, or post a comment on here saying that you’d like to see them, and I’ll try to add them to the online Shop in time for Christmas.

Click here to go shopping!

Also, you can subscribe now to this blog! When you do that, you’ll automatically receive an email when a new Canvasworks post goes up. Please help me grow this blog. I enjoy keeping everyone up to date.

Tomorrow we’re going to Woodstock’s Annual Wassail parade. I’ll put a bunch of photos up from that. It’s a blast- horses, snow, jingle bells- great for getting in the Christmas spirit!

We woke up this morning to a glorious blanket of new snow. And it kept going all day!

1250 Click on the picture of the house to see a whole album of pictures I took today.