Rolled or stretched: which to order, and what it does to your freight bill

What the two mean

Rolled means the painted canvas travels loose, rolled face-out around a core and packed in a tube. The buyer, or the buyer's framer, stretches it onto a frame at the destination.

Stretched means the canvas is already mounted on a wooden stretcher frame, ready to hang. It travels as a rigid box.

Why the freight difference is so large

International freight is charged on whichever is greater, actual weight or volume. A stretched canvas is mostly air inside a box, so it's charged on volume. A rolled canvas in a tube is a fraction of that. For large paintings and multi-piece orders, rolling usually cuts freight substantially.

Stretching at the destination

Most framers can stretch a rolled canvas quickly. It adds a local cost and a few days, but for large pieces or volume orders that's usually far less than the freight saved.

Which paintings shouldn't be rolled

• Heavy palette-knife texture
• Very large pieces that will be crated anyway
• Paintings that haven't fully cured

Curing comes first

Paint needs time before a canvas can be rolled. Rolled too early, the paint can crack along the curve or stick to itself. We cure first, interleave with glassine and roll face-out on a wide tube, so the paint layer is stretched rather than compressed.

Our advice

For a single piece going straight to a customer who wants to hang it that day, order stretched. For volume orders, large pieces and anything going to a framer, order rolled.